Guatemalan lawmakers revive death penalty

By IANS

Guatemala City : Guatemala’s congress has restored the death penalty nearly six years after the country’s constitutional court declared a moratorium on execution, EFE news agency reported Wednesday.


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The bill, sponsored by the main opposition right-wing Patriot Party, won by an overwhelming majority Tuesday.

President Alvaro Colom, an opponent of capital punishment, will now have to decide whether or not to grant clemency to the 34 convicts on death row.

Under the measure passed Tuesday, Colom will have 30 days to rule on each separate application for clemency, which is automatic in capital cases. He can either order the execution to proceed or commute the sentence to 50 years in prison, the maximum allowed under Guatemalan law.

The constitutional court declared a moratorium on executions in 2002 at the request of the then president Alfonso Portillo, who contended that the 1892 law establishing the commutation mechanism did not specify which element of government actually has the authority to grant clemency.

In that ruling, the judges said it was up to congress to amend the law and clarify the issue of jurisdiction.

Guatemala’s last executions were in June 2000, when Amilcar Cetino and Tomas Cerrate were put to death for the kidnapping and killing of a wealthy businesswoman.

A poll published in May 2007 showed 65 percent of Guatemalans favour death penalty as a way to control heinous crimes in the country.

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