This case is about the imposition of mandatory death sentence for the crime of murder on Lennox Ricardo Boyce and four more individuals. Section 2 of Barbados’ Offences Against the Person Act of 1994, which imposes a mandatory sentence of death for persons convicted for the crime of murder. In each case, the State failed to consider the specific events of the crime. In addition, the State subjected the victims to uninhabitable prison conditions, and their warrants of execution were read while their complaints were still pending before domestic courts and the Inter-American human rights system. The Court found all these acts to be violations of the American Convention on Human Rights. Notably, some of the issues addressed in this judgment have also been objects of a judgment issued by the Caribbean Court of Justice.
Case Summary: Boyce et al. v. Barbados, Case Summary