Senate last night passed amendments to the capital punishment abolition bill to correct glaring errors, but UBP Senator Mark Pettingill -- who pointed out the original mistakes in December -- said it was still flawed.

Mr. Pettingill slammed Government senators for passing the bill last year even though they knew it meant a Police officer could be jailed for life for turning a blind eye to a crime.

Government fulfilled the promise made by Senate leader Milton Scott that amendments would be introduced to correct the glaring errors.

But Sen. Pettingill said the amendments had been so rushed that there were still mistakes.

He said now it was an offence to release someone from custody, not rescue them.

He said a newspaper in the Cayman Islands had carried the story of Bermuda passing the flawed abolition legislation last year on its front page to appeal to businessmen who might be tempted to locate there.

"This hasn't been amended thoroughly, it was a knee-jerk reaction. There was no need to rush it, and its still not right today,'' he said.

"Now we will need another criminal code amendment act when we could have got it right on one go.'' Government Senator Col. David Burch said passing the legislation before the millennium was the best thing he had achieved in his time in the Senate.

He said: "My leader gave an undertaking that an amendment would come forward to correct the most glaring inaccuracy. if we have to bring forward 100 amendments to get the rest right, so be it.'' Independent Senator Walwyn Hughes congratulated Government for bringing forward the amendment but said it should not set a precedent for passing flawed legislation and allowing amendments later. The issue was so important that it was a one-off.

Senate Leader Milton Scott said: "The Law Reform Committee has estimated it would take five years to bring all the necessary amendments to the criminal code.

"If we looked at all of these things we would spend all our time and not get to the meaningful things that have to be addressed.''