(Trinidad Guardian) A mandatory penalty of 25 years in jail, meant to send a powerful message to would be drug traffickers, was yesterday deemed unlawful by the Appeal Court in long-awaited decision. The ruling now allows judges the discretion to pass more lenient sentences on offenders who can prove mitigating factors in their cases.
The judges’ newfound power is a consequence of a landmark ruling delivered by a special five-member panel of the Appeal Court, in the appeal of two men who were challenging the 25-year mandatory, minimum sentence for drug trafficking. The judgment stands to affect almost a dozen convicted traffickers, whose sentencing had been deferred pending the judgment, in the highly anticipated appeal, as well as those convicted of the offence in the future.
The judgment, which had been reserved by the Appeal Court since July 2012, was one of several long outstanding appeals which the
