There has been very little public intellectual discourse in the Commonwealth Caribbean on one of the most vexing issues of the criminal justice system: the retention of the death penalty as a punishment. In The Death Penalty and Human Rights, Sir Fred Phillips examines the changing nature of Caribbean jurisprudence away from the acceptance of the death penalty as a mandatory punishment in contrast to the prevailing dictates of political will which advocate for its retention.

On the international landscape, it is generally accepted that the death penalty runs contrary to the right to humane treatment enshrined in several treaties and Conventions to which the countries of the Commonwealth Caribbean are signatories. Using the celebrated Jamaican case of Pratt and Morgan, the book examines and discusses the cases of the past two decades which have led to the changing jurisprudence on this life and death issue.

Unapologetic in the arguments for abolition of the death penalty, The Death Penalty and Human Rights is a concise examination of a sensitive yet important aspect of Caribbean jurisprudence.