82.
As indicated in the general considerations section, the execution by firing squad was a
method set forth in the Guatemalan Law at the time of the events. Later, by means of Decree 100-96 of
October, 1996, said method was repealed and was replaced with the lethal injection procedure. This was
done in considering that “while death penalty is in force in Guatemala, its execution must be carried out in the
most humanitarian way possible not only for the convicted that suffers it but also for the society, which in a
way or another, is a spectator.” It also considered that “modern trends in Forensic Medicine recommend the
use of the procedure of lethal injection, which combines the guarantee of its effectiveness in a very short
period of time, with the minimum suffering on the part of the person subject to it (…).”56
VI.
ANALYSIS ON THE MERITS
A.
General considerations on the analysis standard in death penalty cases
83.
The Inter-American Commission considers it relevant to reiterate its previous decisions
regarding the heightened scrutiny to be used in cases involving the death penalty. The right to life has
received broad recognition as the supreme human right and as a condition sine qua non for the enjoyment of
all other rights.57
84.
For this reason, the IACHR’s duty to ensure that any deprivation of life that may occur by the
application of the death penalty does not violate any obligation enshrined in the instruments of the InterAmerican System of Human Rights, is particularly important.58 This rigorous scrutiny is consistent with the
restrictive approach adopted by other international human rights bodies when they analyzed cases involving
the death penalty59 and the Inter-American Commission has mentioned and applied it in previous cases of
death penalty submitted before it.60
85.
As the Commission has explained, this standard of review is the necessary consequence of
the specific penalty at issue and the right to a fair trial and the attendant due process guarantees.61 The
IACHR has stated:
56
Decree Number 100-96 of the Congress of the Republic of Guatemala.
57
IACHR; Report No. 76/16, Case 12.254. Merits. Victor Saldaño. United States of America. December 10, 2016, para.169.
58 See on this regard, IACHR, The Death Penalty in the Inter-American Human Rights System: from Restrictions to Abolition,
OEA/Ser.L/V/II.Doc. 68, December 31, 2011.
59 See, for example, I/A Court H.R., Advisory Opinion OC-16/99 (October 1, 1999) “The Right to Information on Consular
Assistance in the Framework of the Guarantees of the Due Process of Law,” para. 136 (the finding that “[b]ecause execution of the death
penalty is irreversible, the strictest and most rigorous enforcement of judicial guarantees is required of the State so that those guarantees
are not violated and a human life not arbitrarily taken as a result;”) HRC-UN, Baboheram-Adhin et al. v. Suriname, Communications Nos.
148-154/1983, approved on April 4, 1985, para. 14(3) (considering that the law must strictly control and limit the circumstances in
which a person may be deprived of his life by the authorities of a State;) Report of the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions,
Bacre Waly Ndiaye, submitted in accordance to 1994/82 Order of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Question of the
violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms in any part of the world with particular reference to colonial and other dependent
countries and territories, UN Doc.E/CN.4/1995/61 (December 14, 1994) (hereinafter the “Ndiaye Report”), para. 378 (in which it is
highlighted that in cases related to the death penalty, the observance of all the rules for an impartial trial to each and every of the cases is
what must be guaranteed and when there is indicia to the contrary, verified in accordance with the obligation that international law
imposes, to conduct exhaustive and impartial investigations of all the claims of a violation to the right to life.)
60 IACHR, Report 11/15, Case 12.833, Merits (Publication,) Félix Rocha Díaz, United States of America, March, 23, 2015, para.
54; Report No. 44/14, Case 12.873, Merits (publication,) Edgar Tamayo Arias, United States of America, July 17, 2014, para. 127; Report
No. 57/96, Andrews, United States of America, IACHR Annual Report, 1997, paras. 170-171.
61 IACHR, The Death Penalty in the Inter-American System of Human Rights: from Restrictions to Abolition,
OEA/Ser.L/V/II.Doc. 68, December 31, 2011, para. 41.
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