3 sentence of this Court upon each of you is that you be taken from this place to a lawful prison and there to a place of execution and that you will there suffer death by hanging, and may the Lord have mercy upon your souls”; g) On May 29, 1995, Mr. Hilaire applied for leave to appeal his conviction to the Court of Appeal of Trinidad and Tobago. This application was dismissed on November 7, 1996. On October 30, 1997, Mr. Hilaire filed a petition for special leave to appeal his conviction to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London, which dismissed it on November 6, 1997. Mr. Hilaire filed a second petition for special leave to appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London on or about January 25, 1999. This second petition was also dismissed on February 3, 1999; h) The Offences Against the Person Act provides a definition of “murder”, permits a jury to consider certain circumstances of a killing in determining whether the offender ought to be found guilty of murder or of a lesser offence, mandates the imposition of the death penalty on an offender found guilty of murder, but does not permit a judge or jury to consider the personal circumstances of an offender or his or her offence; i) The Constitution of Trinidad and Tobago provides for an Advisory Committee on the Power of Pardon, which is charged with considering and making recommendations to the Minister of National Security as to whether an offender sentenced to death ought to benefit from the President’s discretionary power of pardon under the said Constitution. No criteria are prescribed in law for the exercise of the Committee’s functions or the President’s discretion, and the offender has no legal right to make submissions to the Committee to present, receive or challenge evidence the Committee chooses to take into account. The exercise of the power of pardon is an act of clemency not a matter of legal right, and therefore not subject to judicial review. III PROCEEDING BEFORE THE COMMISSION 3) On October 9, 1997, the British firm of Solicitors, Simmons & Simmons (hereinafter “the petitioners”), presented to the Commission a petition against Trinidad and Tobago on behalf of Mr. Haniff Hilaire. On October 16, 1997, the Commission opened case No. 11,816, sent the State the pertinent parts of the petition and requested a reply. The Commission also requested the State, pursuant to Article 29(2) of its Rules of Procedure, to stay the execution of Mr. Hilaire, until such time as the Commission had an opportunity to examine the case and issue a decision. 4) On October 30, 1997, the petitioners informed the Commission that they were awaiting a decision by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council on Mr. Hilaire’s application for special leave to appeal. On November 6 of the same year, the petitioners informed the Commission that leave to appeal to the Privy Council had been refused.