Government fears people would think it's pandering to the Becky Middleton campaigners if it made its new double jeopardy law retroactive, according to former Attorney General Phil Perinchief.

AG Kim Wilson has said it would be against Bermuda's Constitution to allow the Court of Appeal Amendment Act — which allows people to be tried more than once for the same offence when new evidence comes to light — to apply to cases from the past.

But Mr. Perinchief yesterday said he could find nothing in the constitution or criminal code to back up the Senator's claim, which was reiterated in the House of Assembly by Minister Michael Scott last Friday.

Mr. Perinchief, who pushed for the double jeopardy rule to be dropped while he was AG, argued the constitution in fact allows for trials to be reopened "upon the order of a superior court in the course of appeal or review proceedings relating to the conviction or acquittal".

He said this is exactly what the new legislation aims to do.

"I have combed through the relevant parts of the constitution and criminal code and I don't find anything that says this law can't be retroactive," Mr. Perinchief told The Royal Gazette.

"Quite frankly, I think they are making it up only to buttress an untenable political position. They don't want to be seen to be pandering to a lot of the white people who are pressing to have the Rebecca Middleton case reopened. It's as simple as that.

"It's a political thing rather than anything that's constitutional. They really have to 'fess up and come forward and say so."

Mr. Perinchief called for Sen. Wilson to point to the part of the Constitution she believes would be broken by making the act retrospective.

The AG replied yesterday: "While I appreciate the comments raised by Mr. Perinchief, I really do think it is neither proper nor appropriate for me to be involved in this type of public discord about an interpretation of a particular legislative provision.

"I will be presenting this bill in the Senate in a few weeks and my rationale for the particular interpretation will be presented at that time."

Mr. Perinchief said that, ironically, even if the law was retroactive the Middleton case would remain closed.

He said key evidence which could have led to a conviction had actually surfaced before the trial finished, but had not been used by the prosecution.

"The evidence was already here. They just didn't wait for the results. It was botched up; it was ineptitude," he said.

Nevertheless, he said prosecutors should still be able to use the new law to put right injustices in other cases from the past.

"Justice does not go from this day forward. Justice is for all time," he said.

As the bill passed through the House on Wednesday, United Bermuda Party deputy leader Trevor Moniz said Sen. Wilson's interpretation of the Constitution was incorrect.

Mr. Moniz argued that while the Constitution states a new offence cannot be made retroactive, Government is within its rights to make amendments to the laws pertaining to offences already on the books.

And Bermuda Democratic Alliance MP Shawn Crockwell said the bill should have included all violent offences, not just murder and premeditated murder.

"Nobody in the bar [legal community] I have spoken with understands why it only pertains to murder and premeditated murder," Mr. Crockwell said.

"I cannot wrap my head around it. To say in one or two circumstance we want to make sure we get it right, but someone who has committed grievous bodily harm and left someone paralysed, that person would not be punished if new evidence comes to light; it is befuddling."

Heath Minister Walter Roban said it was important Government was taking small steps on the matter.

"Taking someone back to the dock is a very serious matter, it should not be taken lightly," he said.