BRIDGETOWN, Barbados — A new Caribbean court yesterday 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 and sentenced to hang in 2002 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.

But the court said a majority of its seven members determined the two men had “a legitimate expectation” they would be allowed a reasonable amount of time to await a ruling from the human rights commission, an arm of the Organisation of American States. The commission decides whether to take cases to the Costa Rica-based Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

“To frustrate that expectation was to deny them the protection of the law,” according to the ruling read by court’s chief justice, Michael de la Bastide.

The lead lawyer for the Barbados government, Roger Forde, had argued that the Barbados Constitution does not make any provision for its citizens to petition international bodies. He said yesterday he would not comment until after reading the judgement.

In the case of Boyce and Joseph, who were convicted in February 2001, Barbados also asked the Trinidad-based court to overturn a precedent set by the Privy Council that requires executions to take place within five years of conviction.

But the Caribbean court cited the passage of more than five years as a factor in its decision that the death sentences should be commuted.

Many Caribbean countries now see the death penalty as a solution to the crimes that make it difficult to sell their islands as idyllic tourist paradises.

The region’s last execution was in the Bahamas in 2000, and Barbados has not executed anyone since 1984.

Only Barbados and Guyana have adopted the Caribbean court as their highest appellate body. Other countries are facing legal and political obstacles to shedding their dependence on the 170-year-old Privy Council, which some islanders consider a vestige of colonialism.