"The result of the trial will be fair and presumably severe, but the problem is the execution of the penalty," Mr. Alessandri said.
In Jamaica, and throughout the Caribbean, the privy council has been viewed as the court that prevents the execution of the death penalty.
More common criminals could expect other forms of penalty: execution, for example, and various kinds of corporal punishment; forced labor and conscription; public humiliation; the levying of fines; exile; loss of privileges and offices; and so on.
Capital punishment, also called death penalty, execution of an offender sentenced to death after conviction by a court of law of a criminal offense.
Amnesty International executive director Steven Hawkins said: "This decision does not change the fact that regardless of the method of execution, the death penalty is broken beyond repair.
By contrast, only two states that had a death penalty barred execution of the mentally retarded in 1989, when the Supreme Court in a separate decision rejected a challenge to capital punishment for that category of defendants.
While 23 of the 38 states that have the death penalty permit the execution of youthful, or juvenile, offenders, only a handful have actually carried out such executions since the death penalty was reinstated.
The death penalty, particularly the execution of foreigners, is further down the list of priorities.
