''Fox v R'' is a 2002

Judicial Committee of the Privy Council The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) is the highest court of appeal for the Crown Dependencies, the British Overseas Territories, some Commonwealth countries and a few institutions in the United Kingdom. Established on 14 Aug ...

(JCPC) case in which it was held that it was unconstitutional in

Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Kitts and Nevis (), officially the Federation of Saint Christopher and Nevis, is an island country and microstate consisting of the two islands of Saint Kitts and Nevis, both located in the West Indies, in the Leeward Islands chain ...

for

capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

to be the mandatory sentence for murder. The JCPC held that because the Constitution of Saint Kitts and Nevis 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 involved British bodybuilder

Bertil Fox Bertil Fox (born 5 January 1951) is a British former IFBB professional bodybuilder and convicted murderer. He was pardoned for that crime by the Governor General of Saint Kitts and Nevis on 4 August 2022. Biography Born 5 January 1951, on the ...

, who in 1998 was convicted of murdering his former fiancée and her mother the previous year. The case was decided with '' Reyes v R'' and '' R v Hughes'', cases on the same issue on appeal from

Belize Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wate ...

and Saint Lucia.

External links

''Fox v R''
bailii.org 2002 in United Kingdom case law 2002 in Saint Kitts and Nevis Death penalty case law Judicial Committee of the Privy Council cases on appeal from Saint Kitts and Nevis Prisoners sentenced to death by Saint Kitts and Nevis Murder in Saint Kitts and Nevis

See also

External links