''R v Hughes'', ''Reyes v R'' and ''Fox v R'' were a trilogy of closely related cases considered by the

Judicial Committee of the Privy Council The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) is the highest court of appeal for the Crown Dependencies, the British Overseas Territories, some Commonwealth countries and a few institutions in the United Kingdom. Established on 14 August ...

(JCPC), with the appeals heard together and the decisions released simultaneously on the 11 March 2002. The cases dealt with the constitutionality of the

capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence (law), sentence ordering that an offender b ...

in the

Commonwealth Caribbean The Commonwealth Caribbean refers to a group of English-speaking world, English-speaking sovereign states in the Caribbean, including both island states and mainland countries in the Americas, that are members of the Commonwealth of Nations and ...

countries of

Saint Lucia Saint Lucia is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean. Part of the Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles, it is located north/northeast of the island of Saint Vincent (Saint Vincent and the Grenadines), Saint Vincent ...

Belize Belize is a country on the north-eastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a maritime boundary with Honduras to the southeast. P ...

and

Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Kitts and Nevis, officially the Federation of Saint Christopher (St Kitts) and Nevis, is an island country consisting of the two islands of Saint Kitts and Nevis, both located in the West Indies, in the Leeward Islands chain of the Less ...

respectively. ''Reyes'' concerned a man who, during a conflict over a fence, shot his neighbour and the neighbour's wife, then unsuccessfully attempted suicide. ''Fox'' involved British bodybuilder

Bertil Fox Bertil Fox (born 5 January 1951) is a British former International Federation of BodyBuilders professional bodybuilder and convicted murderer. He was pardoned for that crime by the Governor General of Saint Kitts and Nevis on 4 August 2022. Bio ...

, who in 1998 was convicted of the double murder of his former fiancée and her mother the previous year. In all three cases it was held that mandatory death penalty was contrary to prohibitions on inhuman punishment, and thus unconstitutional. However, this conclusion doesn't necessarily apply in all of the Caribbean Commonwealth as the 2004 cases JCPC of ''

Boyce v R ''Boyce v R'' is a 2004 Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) case which upheld the law that sets out a mandatory sentence of death for murder in Barbados. Background The JCPC held in some cases, the law that makes capital punishment ...

'' (Barbados) and '' Matthew v The State'' (Trinidad and Tobago) found for the constitutionality of the death penalty in those countries.

References

Citations

{{reflist, 30em 2002 in United Kingdom case law 2002 in Saint Lucia Death penalty case law Judicial Committee of the Privy Council cases on appeal from Saint Lucia Prisoners sentenced to death by Saint Lucia Murder in Saint Lucia 2002 in Saint Kitts and Nevis Judicial Committee of the Privy Council cases on appeal from Saint Kitts and Nevis Prisoners sentenced to death by Saint Kitts and Nevis Murder in Saint Kitts and Nevis 2002 in Belize Judicial Committee of the Privy Council cases on appeal from Belize Prisoners sentenced to death by Belize Murder in Belize Human rights in Belize