GUYANA: DEATH SENTENCES OF 4 PRISONERS COMMUTED

June 4, 2012: A judge in Guyana commuted the death sentences of four prisoners, saying their protracted detention is cruel and inhumane.
Chief Justice Ian Chang said the men should be sentenced to life in prison or be freed because they also faced the trauma of having death warrants read to them.
Defense attorney Nigel Hughes said lawyers plan to ask that all four be freed.
One inmate, Lawrence Chan, was sentenced to death in 1985 after being found guilty of murder.
He is one of the longest serving prisoners at the maximum security Georgetown Prison.
Guyana has about 25 prisoners on death row, and the last one was hanged in 1997. The ruling comes as the government holds public hearings on whether it should abolish the death penalty. (Sources: AP, 05/06/2012)