THE LONG-anticipated debate on the death penalty stalled shortly after it began in Gordon House yesterday.

Debate on the issue hit a snag after emphasis shifted from the retention or rejection of capital punishment to the preservation or shedding of ties with the London-based Privy Council.

After four presentations, the debate was suspended with both sides of the political divide agreeing to meet to resolve their differences before restarting the crucial deliberations in the House.

Angered government

Senior opposition parliamentarian Robert Pickersgill called for a controversial amendment to the Constitution, which angered the Government.

"Be it further resolved that the Constitution of Jamaica be amended to remove the five-year stricture in relation to the carrying out of the death penalty after conviction, and also that the rulings of the governor general's Privy Council concerning the prerogative of mercy shall not be enquired into by a court of law," the amendment read.

He argued that the Opposition was not willing to participate further in the debate if the Government did not accept its amendment.

Responding while seated, Prime Minister Bruce Golding, who had opened the debate earlier, accused the Opposition of trying to use the proposed amendment to abolish the Privy Council.

Counter charge

A counter charge was made by Pickersgill, who said the Government was using the resolution to retain the Privy Council.

The Opposition MP, who is also chairman of the PNP, said his party remained firm in its position for the death penalty to be carried out.

When asked why the Opposition did not execute death-row inmates during its long tenure in office, Pickersgill said the Privy Council frustrated the plans of the PNP government by continuing to shift the goalpost, after its landmark Pratt and Morgan ruling.

"This motion before us represents a treading of water. It takes us nowhere," he said.

He contended that unless the administration provided a specific undertaking as to what it intended to do if Parliament voted to retain the death penalty, the debate would amount to a public relations exercise.

In a later intervention, the prime minister sought to assure that the first of eight persons now on death row, who exhausted the five-year appeals process, would face the gallows.

He told Parliament that instructions would be given for the death warrant to be issued and for execution to be carried out.

Stricture cannot be met

But Pickersgill insisted that the five-year stricture imposed by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in the Pratt and Morgan judgment could not be met if the condemned person remained free to pursue "all of his challenges against the sentence of death".

He reminded the administration that it had given a commitment to carrying out hanging after three months in office. However, he said 14 months had passed and this commitment was not yet fulfilled.