Former Solicitor General Michael Hylton - file photo
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Michael Hylton
Former Solicitor General Michael Hylton has declared support for removing certain laws which have not been enforced for several years, including the death penalty.
The death penalty is one of many old laws which finds favour with some Jamaicans, but which is in conflict with the approach of the country's international partners.
The UK Privy Council, Jamaica's highest appellate court, has also pronounced on the issue which would make it extremely difficult to carry out executions at this time.
Mr. Hylton argues that since the law is not being used it should not remain.
"It's not good to have laws that are not enforced or not applied because then what you have is...people calling for it, politicians pretending that it's the court's fault. Because while the Privy Council decision of Pratt and Morgan makes it difficult, it doesn't make it impossible and other countries in the Commonwealth have carried it out. So it's kind of an excuse to some extent," he contended while speaking Thursday on Radio Jamaica's Beyond The Headlines.
The landmark case of Pratt and Morgan v The Attorney General was decided in November 1993 and held that it was unconstitutional in Jamaica to execute a prisoner who had been on death row for 14 years.
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