BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (AP) - A new Caribbean court has refused to restore execution orders for two convicted murderers, dismissing an appeal by the Barbados government in its first ruling on capital punishment.

Barbados asked the Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice to impose the death sentences against Lennox Boyce and Jeffrey Joseph. The two were convicted in 2001 and sentenced to hang in the murder of a 22-year-old man.

The Barbados High Court commuted their sentences to life imprisonment last year, ruling they would be on death row for an inhumanely long time while they wait for their cases to be heard in the Washington-based Inter-American Commission of Human Rights.

The case went to the Caribbean court, which was inaugurated last year to counter the London-based Privy Council as the highest appellate court for many former British colonies in the region. Some Caribbean governments struggling with high crime rates hoped it would clear the way for the resumption of executions in the region, something the Privy Council has blocked in recent years.

Many Caribbean countries now see the death penalty as a solution to the crimes that make it difficult to sell their islands as tourist paradises. The region's last execution was in the Bahamas in 2000.

Trousers in Denim

Cream of the 'Crop'

Cheeky's World