NO WAY OUT: Caribbean Nationals on Death Row During COVID-19
The United States government is scrambling to free thousands of non-violent inmates, in a bid to slow the coronavirus spread in prisons, but there will be no quick release for more than a dozen Caribbean nationals on Death Row.
According to Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), at least 15 Caribbean nationals were incarcerated under the sentence of death in U.S. prisons through Dec. 2019. Some have exhausted court options and await execution or pardon. Others have appeals pending.
Cuba, with eight, represents the biggest cluster of U.S. Death Row inmates from the region, followed by two each from Jamaica and the Dominican Republic, and one from The Bahamas, Haiti and St. Kitts and Nevis, respectively.
Two women, St. Kitts and Nevis-born Linda Carty, who also claims British citizenship, and Cuba’s Ana Maria Cardona, are among Caribbean Death Row inmates scattered across several penal institutions in the U.S.
At least three Caribbean nationals who were sentenced to death await re-sentencing or a new trial following a ruling by an appellate court.
UNLIKELY
Yet it is unlikely any of them will benefit from an early release to escape contracting the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in prison.
Government authorities fear the absence of social distancing will lead to catastrophic levels of contracting the virus among prison inmates and staff. The U.S. Bureau of Prisons (BOP), through May 20, reported 2,265 inmates and 188 staff tested positive for COVID-19. Some 58 inmates and staff at BOP institutions had died from the virus up to that time.
However, Death Row inmates usually occupy a cell alone and generally do not mingle with the rest of the prison population. In addition, their crimes -almost all have been convicted of murder – make them violent offenders and therefore not considered eligible for early release due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Yet some Caribbean nationals are fighting their death sentence. Dolan Darling, of The Bahamas; Jamaica’s Lancelot Armstrong; plus Dane Abdool and Noel Doorbalo of Trinidad and Tobago are awaiting re-sentencing or new trial.
WAIT
For others, like Carty, they await execution, pardon or exoneration resulting from political pressure. Carty, who is being held in Texas after being convicted two decades ago, is “facing possible execution in the near future,” according to the DPIC.
The former schoolteacher in St. Kitts has maintained her innocence in the murder of Joana Rodriguez. The prosecution claimed Carty helped organize the kidnapping and murder of Rodriguez. Three court witnesses said Carty was the brain behind the scheme. They were spared Death Row. At least one recanted his testimony, claiming he was pressured by law enforcement with threats of the death penalty if he did not identify Carty as part of the murder plot. Carty has repeatedly claimed her innocence.
“No. I can truthfully say to you I did not commit this crime,” Carty reportedly told the England-based Telegraph newspaper last year. She called her trial “a farce.
“Everything was there in my case, the evidence was there to exonerate me, it was just we didn't have the proper counsel to go after it,” Carty said.
The British government is reportedly still working on her case.St. Kitts has weighed in as well, including providing affidavits that “attested to Ms Carty’s good character,” describing her as a “highly credible primary school teacher.”
More than 120 foreign nationals were on Death Row in the U.S. through 2019. They represent 32 nations, with Mexico having the most inmates with at least 50.
