‘The Mandatory Death Penalty – An International and Comparative Perspective’, in Judges, Prosecutors and Counsel – A Penalty without Legitimacy: The Mandatory Death Penalty in Trinidad and Tobago, London: The Death Penalty Project, pp. 1–17

Upon conviction for murder, death is the only penalty which the law allows a Trinidad and Tobago judge to impose.1 There is no room for taking into account the personal circumstances of the accused or the motivations which may have led to the killing. Such considerations are irrelevant because in any event the judge is not empowered to select any other sentence but death. Traditionally, before pronouncing the sentence, the judge would ask the offender whether he or she has anything to say but this may be to give him or her the opportunity to refer to circumstances which in law might preclude the imposition of the death sentence, such as his or her young age at the date the murder was committed, or the fact that she is pregnant or that he or she is so mentally impaired as to obviate the death sentence. Other than these exceptional cases, however, it is not expected that the accused would seek to mitigate the death sentence.