International Mechanism Submissions

The retention of the death penalty in Jamaica continues to put women at risk of being sentenced to death. Issues pervasive in Jamaica's legal system as a whole, including failure to increase women's literacy of rights and failure to provide free legal aid, put women at risk of facing violations of their rights in potential capital cases. Crimes committed in the context of gender-based violence against women, and Jamaican courts' failure to include gender-based violence as a mitigating factor in capital cases, also puts women victim-survivors of violence at risk of facing the death penalty. While the Jamaican Government's last execution occurred in February 1988, the death penalty by hanging remains as an available penalty for the following offences: murder of security forces or judicial officers, jurors, or civil servants; murder for hire; double murders or repeat murders; or murder in the furtherance of a serious crime. Persons convicted of murder under the aforementioned circumstances are faced with either the death penalty or life imprisonment. Judges can take mitigating circumstances into account. In Jamaica, hanging is the method used for state executions.