will ever come face to face with the hangman.

The gallows were last used on the Island 20 years ago when Erskine Burrows and Larry Tacklyn were executed for the so-called "Shopping Centre murders''.

Burrows was also convicted of the murder of Governor Sir Richard Sharples in 1973 and Police Commissioner George Duckett the previous year. The executions sparked off large scale riots.

Since then all convicted murderers have had their death sentences commuted to life imprisonment.

It is not yet known whether lawyers acting for DeRoza will launch an appeal against either the verdict or the sentence.

But after yesterday's result, DeRoza's crestfallen defence attorney Mark Pettingill remained convinced that his client would not hang.

"We just don't hang people anymore, it's barbaric,'' he said.

"Ultimately I think the sentence would be commuted but he will continue to be incarcerated.'' A death sentence is automatically referred by the Chief Justice -- in this case trial judge Austin Ward -- to the Advisory Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy. They consider whether the death sentence should be carried out or commuted. Their findings are then passed on to the Governor who has the task of making a final decision.

The Governor has the power to grant a pardon, delay punishment or substitute another penalty, none of which can be exercised before the committee has been consulted.

In August, 1995 Rudolph West was sentenced to death for the murder of his estranged wife Rochelle.

The sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.