PART IV OFFENCES AGAINST PUBLIC ORDER AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE
TITLE 23 – ESCAPE AND RESCUE

338. Everyone who, by force or violence, breaks any prison, with intent to set at liberty himself or any other person confined therein on any criminal charge, shall be guilty of felony and liable to imprisonment for seven years.

339. Everyone who—
(a) having been convicted of any offence, escapes from any lawful custody in which he may be under his conviction; or
(b) whether convicted or not, escapes from any prison in which he is lawfully confined on any criminal charge,
shall be guilty of felony and liable to imprisonment for three years.

340. Everyone who, being in lawful custody, other than as aforesaid, on any criminal charge, escapes from that custody, shall be guilty of a misdemeanour and liable to imprisonment for two years.

341. Everyone who—
(a) rescues any person, or assists any person in escaping or attempting to escape, from lawful custody, whether in prison or not, under sentence of death or imprisonment for life, or after conviction of and before sentence for, or whilst in lawful custody upon a charge of, any offence punishable with death or imprisonment for life; or
(b) being a peace officer and having any such person in his lawful custody, or being an officer of any prison in which the person is lawfully confined, voluntarily and intentionally permits him to escape, or aids him in escaping or attempting to escape, from the custody or prison
shall be guilty of felony and liable to imprisonment for life.

342. Everyone who—
(a) rescues any person, or assists any person in escaping or attempting to escape, from lawful custody, whether in prison or not, under a sentence of imprisonment for more than two years but less than life, or after conviction of and before sentence for, or whilst in lawful custody upon a charge of, any offence punishable with imprisonment for any term less than life or more than two years but less than life; and
(b) being a peace officer and having any such person in his lawful custody, or being an officer of any prison in which the person is lawfully confined, voluntarily and intentionally permits him to escape, or aids him in escaping or attempting to escape, from the custody or prison,
shall be guilty of felony and liable to imprisonment for seven years.

343. Everyone who—
(a) rescues any person, or assists any person in escaping or attempting to escape from lawful custody, whether in prison or not, otherwise than upon a charge, conviction, or sentence of or for an offence punishable with death or imprisonment for more than two years; or
(b) with intent to facilitate the escape of any prisoner lawfully imprisoned, conveys or causes to be conveyed anything whatsoever into any prison,
shall be guilty of a misdemeanour and liable to imprisonment for three years.

344. Everyone who—
(a) being a peace officer having any person in his lawful custody otherwise than upon a charge, conviction, or sentence of or for any offence punishable with death or imprisonment, voluntarily and intentionally permits that person to escape, or aids him in escaping or attempting to escape, from custody; or
(b) being an officer of any prison in which any person is lawfully confined for any cause, whether civil or criminal, otherwise than upon a charge, conviction, or sentence aforesaid, voluntarily and intentionally permits that person to escape, or aids him in escaping or attempting to escape, from the prison,
shall be guilty of a misdemeanour and liable to imprisonment for three years.

345. Everyone who, having the lawful custody of any person or being employed by or under any person having that custody as a warder, overseer, guard, or otherwise, through negligence or carelessness, allows that person to escape from custody shall be guilty of a misdemeanour and liable to imprisonment for one year.

346. For the purposes of the last seven preceding sections, custody under an irregular warrant or other irregular process shall be deemed to be lawful.

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.