5 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; z) Domestic judicial review proceedings for criminal convictions may take two forms: a criminal appeal against conviction or a constitutional motion under Section 14 of the Constitution. Article 6 of the Trinidad and Tobago Constitution shields from challenge, under sections 4 and 5 of the Constitution, any claim that a law or any action taken under the authority of any law existing in 1976, the date of commencement of the Constitution, violates the fundamental rights under sections 4 and 5 of the Constitution. This includes any argument that the executive act of carrying out a death sentence pronounced by a court under a law that was in force in 1976 abrogates, abridges or infringes in any way a condemned individual’s Constitutional rights or freedoms; aa) In addition, section 4 of the Trinidad and Tobago Constitution only guarantees the right to a fair trial, and not a speedy trial, within a reasonable time. Consequently, a lengthy pre-trial delay in a criminal case cannot, in and of itself, raise an issue under the Trinidad and Tobago Constitution, rather, it is simply a factor for the trial judge to take into account when assessing the overall question of fairness; bb) 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 that is not a matter of legal right, and therefore not subject to judicial review. III PROCEEDING BEFORE THE COMMISSION 3) Between July 1997 and April 1999, the Commission received 23 petitions from various British law firms (hereinafter “the petitioners”) on behalf of 24 alleged victims whose rights were alleged to have been violated by the State. The Commission began the proceedings of the cases that are the subject of this application on various dates between August 1997 and April 1999, and subsequently opened cases 11,787; 11,814; 11,840; 11,851; 11,853; 11,855; 12,005; 12,021; 12,042; 12,043; 12,052; 12,072; 12,073; 12,075; 12,076; 12,082; 12,093; 12,111; 12,112; 12,129; 12,137; 12,140; and 12,141, and transmitted the pertinent parts of the petitions to the State, and requested a reply. 4) The Commission received responses from the State in cases 11,787 (George Constantine), 11,814 (Wenceslaus James), 11,840 (Denny Baptiste), 11,851