Nearly 150 people convicted of a criminal offense were granted clemency on Wednesday after the Prerogative of Mercy Committee met to review their cases.
Why it matters
The group comprised the largest that the Prerogative of Mercy Committee has ever considered.
What happened at the meeting
- The Prerogative of Mercy Committee met to review 205 requests for Clemency and two for Expungement of Records.
- As a result, 147 were approved for clemency, six pending additional reports, one record expunged and 59 deferred to the next meeting in January 2021.
What National Security Minister Marvin Dames said
The committee met earlier in the month with National Security Minister Marvin Dames who got an update on the processing of applications by young persons and first-time offenders.
“We are very excited about this Committee; hence the reason why our Government wanted to see this Committee flourish and come into being,” Minister Dames said. “The focus now is to ensure that Bahamians everywhere understand the objectives behind this Committee — the purpose of the Committee — especially those out there with police records.”
He added: “We are all about giving people a second chance, and that’s one of the objectives behind the work of this Committee — giving persons a second chance — and we already seeing the worth of that and the success of doing that.”