Decided 11 March 2002 | End date March 11, 2002 | |
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Full case name The Queen, Appellant v Peter Hughes, Respondent Citation(s) [2002] UKPC 12, [2002] 2 AC 259, [2002] 2 WLR 1058 Prior action(s) Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (from Saint Lucia) Ruling court Judicial Committee of the Privy Council People also search for Reyes v R, Fox v R, Re Wakim; Ex parte McNally, R v Williams | ||
R v Hughes is a 2002 Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) case in which it was held that it was unconstitutional in Saint Lucia for capital punishment to be the mandatory sentence for murder. The JCPC held that because the Constitution of Saint Lucia prohibits "inhuman or degrading punishment", following a murder conviction, a trial judge must have discretion to impose a lesser penalty than death by hanging; capital punishment may be applied only in those cases that contain aggravating factors as compared to other murder cases.
The case was decided with Reyes v R and Fox v R, cases on the same issue on appeal from Belize and Saint Kitts and Nevis.
References
R v Hughes Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA