The Privy Council, a group of pompous legal incompetents based in London have decided that the brutal murderer of Donnell Conover doesn’t deserve the death sentence.
The callous justices have ruled that Max Tido, a despicable scum who set Ms Conover’s body on fire after raping and murdering her, does not deserve the death penalty because his crime was not serious enough to warrant the punishment of death.
Acknowledging that a vaginal swab incidated the presence of semen on the 16-year-old girl, the outrageously injust legal body said that wasn’t proof that she had been raped.
The foolish, insensitive ruling comes only one day after Bahamas Minsister of National Security, Tommy Turnquest, had the gall to defend the Privy Council as the highest court of appeal in The Bahamas.
One can only wonder if the victim was the daughter of one of the pompous lawlords, or of Mr Turnquest, if they all would feel the same way.
Mr Tido had been convicted by the courts of The Bahamas years ago and, even after an appeal, had been sentenced to death by Bahamian jurist Anita Allen.
Tido was the first murder convict to be sentenced to death following a decision by the Privy Council in 2006 that ruled that the then mandatory death penalty was unconstitutional.
The Court of Appeal dismissed Tido’s first appeal, upholding his murder conviction and death sentence.
In January, 2007, President of the Court of Appeal Justice Dame Joan Sawyer, after indicating that she is not a supporter of capital punishment, said she had, however, taken an oath to ensure justice according to the laws of The Bahamas.
“While I consciously agree that as far as possible courts should make punishment fit the crime, I ask myself, [what to do in the case] of cold blooded killing of another human being if you’re making your punishment fit the crime, seeing that life in prison fits other offences,” Dame Joan said.
In Justice Allen’s judgment, she indicated that the aggravating factors surrounding the case are particularly heinous and cruel. Justice Allen had pointed out that the victim’s body was significantly burned after her death.
“In my view, this case is at the top end of the range of criminal culpability,” Justice Allen said.
But the Privy Council doesn’t care what Justice Allen decided.
In October, 2009, Minister of National Security advised the Governor General that “the case of Maxo Tido was not an appropriate one for the Prerogative of Mercy to be exercised and that the law should take its course.”
The government had planned to read a death warrant to Tido but was advised that he had applied to the Privy Council, allegedly out of time, but his case was still heard.
With crime, especially murder, escalating continuously and the Privy Council literally obstructing justice by detering the death penalty, there has been much discussion regarding the efficacy of maintaining the Privy Council as the end-all for justice in The Bahamas.
For many Bahamians, the decision has now been made.
The government of the Bahamas has an obligation to the people of the Bahamas to get rid of these insolent legal incompetents once and for all. It is all but certain that the person who sincerely promises that murderers will be hanged in the Bahamas will be the next Prime Minister.
