PART 2. SPECIFIC RULES

TITLE 1. PROTECTION OF FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS OF THE INDIVIDUAL

138. Protection of right to life
1. No person shall be deprived of his or her life intentionally save in execution of the sentence of a court in respect of an offence

PART 2. SPECIFIC RULES

TITLE 1. PROTECTION OF FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS OF THE INDIVIDUAL

138. Protection of right to life

2. No person who was under the age of eighteen years at the time when he or she committed an offence, for which that person has pleaded or was found guilty, shall be subject to capital punishment for the commission of that offence.

PART I GENERAL PROVISIONS
TITLE 2 – PUNISHMENTS

11. The following punishments are imposed by or may be inflicted under this Act—
...
(vii) death.

PART II OFFENCES AGAINST THE PERSON AND REPUTATION
TITLE 9 – HOMICIDE

Murder
100A. (1) Every person who is convicted of murder falling within –
(a) section 100 (1)(a) to (e) shall be sentenced to death or to imprisonment for life;

PART III PROCEEDINGS IN THE COURT
TITLE 11 – TRIAL

Further Proceedings at Trial
163. Where any person is convicted of an offence punishable with death, the Court shall thereupon pronounce sentence of death, and the sentence may be carried into execution, and all other proceedings thereupon and in respect thereof may be had and taken, in the same manner as sentence of death might have been pronounced and carried into execution, and all other proceedings thereupon and in respect thereof might have been had and taken, before the commencement of this Act, on a conviction for any felony for which the person convicted might have been sentenced to suffer death as a felon, but subject to this Act:
Provided that sentence of death shall not be pronounced on or recorded against a person convicted of an offence if it appears to the Court that at the time when the offence was committed he was under the age of eighteen years; but in lieu thereof the Court shall sentence him to be detained during the President’s pleasure; and if so sentenced he shall be liable to be detained in such place and under such conditions as the Minister may direct, and whilst so detained shall be deemed to be in lawful custody.

PART IV
TITLE 12 – EXECUTION AND SENTENCES

Capital Punishment
184. (1) Judgment of death to be executed on a person sentenced to death shall be carried into effect, within the walls of the prison in which that person is confined at the time of execution.

(2) Nothing in any law or usage in Guyana shall be held or taken to constitute either the time or place of execution an essential part of any judgment of death pronounced by the Court upon any person convicted of an offence punishable with death, so as to render the judgment spent or vacated because that person was not executed at the time or place appointed by the Court.

185. (1) The Director of Prisons, the keeper of the prison, and the medical officer of the prison, and any other officers of the prison the Director of Prisons requires, shall be present at the execution, and no other person shall be required to be so present.

(2) Any justice of the peace, and those relatives of the person sentenced, or other persons, whom the Director of Prisons thinks it proper to admit within the prison for the purpose, may also be present at the execution.

186. (1) As soon as may be after judgment of death has been executed on the person sentenced, the medical officer of the prison shall examine the body and ascertain the fact of death, and shall sign a certificate thereof and deliver it to the Director of Prisons.

(2) The Director of Prisons, the keeper of the prison, and those officers and other persons present (if any) whom the Director of Prisons requires or allows to do so, shall also sign a declaration to the effect that judgment of death has been executed on the person sentenced.

187. (1) Every certificate and declaration mentioned in the preceding section shall in each case be forthwith transmitted by the Director of Prisons to the Minister; and copies certified by the Director of Prisons of those several documents shall as soon as possible be exhibited and for twenty-four hours at least be kept exhibited on or near the principal entrance of the prison within which judgment of death has been executed.

(2) Anyone who knowingly and wilfully signs any false certificate or declaration required by this Title relating to capital punishment shall be guilty of a misdemeanour and shall be liable to imprisonment for two years.

188. The omission to comply with any provision of this Title relating to capital punishment shall not make the execution of judgment of death illegal in any case where it would otherwise have been legal.

189. The Minister may make any regulations he deems expedient for observance in every prison on the execution of judgment of death for the purpose as well of guarding against any abuse in the execution, as of giving greater solemnity thereto and of making known without the prison walls the fact that the execution is taking place.

190. Except in so far as is in this Title otherwise provided, judgment of death shall be carried into effect in the same manner as if this Act had not passed.

191. Whenever the President is pleased to grant a pardon to any person sentenced to death for any offence by law punishable with death, the President may, by warrant under his hand and the public seal, order that that person shall be kept in imprisonment for his natural life or for a term of years specified in the warrant; and that warrant shall be as effectual in the law, and shall be carried to execution in the same manner, as if it had been a sentence of imprisonment for that term pronounced by the Court against that person and recorded for an offence in respect of which that sentence might have been pronounced by the Court.