Matthew v The State

Matthew v S is a 2004 Judicial Committee of the Privy Council case which upheld the law that sets out a mandatory sentence of death for murder in Trinidad and Tobago.

Background

In this case, the appellant was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Upon conviction, the appellant appealed the mandatory arguing the death penalty charges were against the Constitution and international law.
The JCPC held in some cases, the law that makes capital punishment mandatory for murder will violate the prohibition on "inhuman or degrading punishment" in the Constitution of [Trinidad and Tobago]. However, because the Constitution of Trinidad and Tobago disallows itself to act to invalidate laws that existed prior to the enactment of the constitution, and the law in question pre-dated the constitution, the mandatory death provisions of the law could not be invalidated and must be upheld.
In Boyce v R, which was released on the same day, the JCPC applied the same principles to a similar law in Barbados. Matthew overruled and declared as wrongly decided the November 2003 JCPC decision of Roodal v S, which interpreted the Constitution of Trinidad and Tobago as invalidating the law on mandatory capital punishment for murder.