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Caribbean ready to bring back death penalty
By Canute James in Kingston
Published: February 1 2008 02:38 | Last updated: February 1 2008 02:38
Winston Edwards is uncompromising about what should be done to convicted murderers. “They should be hanged,” says the Jamaican taxi driver. “And it should be shown live on television so that anyone thinking of murder will see what could happen to them.”
With a growing murder rate in many of their nations, Caribbean leaders are under pressure from constituents such as Mr Edwards. Several governments are listening and plan to resume the execution of convicted murderers. The last was nine years ago.
But legal and human rights lobbies argue that the death penalty is not a deterrent to crime. They maintain that hanging is inhuman, and that the region’s judicial systems are prone to errors that could cause innocent people to be executed.
Despite these concerns, Hubert Ingraham, the Bahamas prime minister, is among regional leaders determined to use the death penalty.
“A number of such cases are going through the courts and eventually they will be disposed of and determined,” says Mr Ingraham. “It is our expectation that some of them will result in the imposition of the death penalty and we will carry it out as we have done in the past.”
Jamaica’s government says its move to resume hanging – the last was in 1988 – is based on public support. “Based on our observation, there is a strong sentiment in the country for hanging to resume,” says Karl Samuda, general secretary of the incumbent Labour party.
Jamaica’s police report that 1,574 people were murdered on the island last year, 234 more than in 2006.
Patrick Manning, Trinidad and Tobago’s prime minister, is keen to re-employ the hangman. “We want to enshrine in law the conditions under which the death penalty can be carried out, so it is not left to the judgment of others,” he says.
The use of the death penalty in the Caribbean has been constrained by rulings by Britain’s Privy Council, the historic royal advisory body that is also the final appeal court for some former British colonies. One specified that convicts on death row for more than five years should have their sentences commuted to life.
The leap in the murder rate in the region is the result of drug trafficking, political violence and communal and family feuds, say police chiefs. Kidnapping for ransom is increasing, and the police blame much of the violence on criminals deported mainly from the US and the UK.
Mr Edwards cares little for human rights groups . Embittered by the murder in the past 18 months of a close friend and of an uncle, he argues for immediate and radical action. “Politicians are joking with our lives. People believe they are not serious about dealing with murderers,” he says.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
By Canute James in Kingston
Published: February 1 2008 02:38 | Last updated: February 1 2008 02:38
Winston Edwards is uncompromising about what should be done to convicted murderers. “They should be hanged,” says the Jamaican taxi driver. “And it should be shown live on television so that anyone thinking of murder will see what could happen to them.”
With a growing murder rate in many of their nations, Caribbean leaders are under pressure from constituents such as Mr Edwards. Several governments are listening and plan to resume the execution of convicted murderers. The last was nine years ago.
But legal and human rights lobbies argue that the death penalty is not a deterrent to crime. They maintain that hanging is inhuman, and that the region’s judicial systems are prone to errors that could cause innocent people to be executed.
Despite these concerns, Hubert Ingraham, the Bahamas prime minister, is among regional leaders determined to use the death penalty.
“A number of such cases are going through the courts and eventually they will be disposed of and determined,” says Mr Ingraham. “It is our expectation that some of them will result in the imposition of the death penalty and we will carry it out as we have done in the past.”
Jamaica’s government says its move to resume hanging – the last was in 1988 – is based on public support. “Based on our observation, there is a strong sentiment in the country for hanging to resume,” says Karl Samuda, general secretary of the incumbent Labour party.
Jamaica’s police report that 1,574 people were murdered on the island last year, 234 more than in 2006.
Patrick Manning, Trinidad and Tobago’s prime minister, is keen to re-employ the hangman. “We want to enshrine in law the conditions under which the death penalty can be carried out, so it is not left to the judgment of others,” he says.
The use of the death penalty in the Caribbean has been constrained by rulings by Britain’s Privy Council, the historic royal advisory body that is also the final appeal court for some former British colonies. One specified that convicts on death row for more than five years should have their sentences commuted to life.
The leap in the murder rate in the region is the result of drug trafficking, political violence and communal and family feuds, say police chiefs. Kidnapping for ransom is increasing, and the police blame much of the violence on criminals deported mainly from the US and the UK.
Mr Edwards cares little for human rights groups . Embittered by the murder in the past 18 months of a close friend and of an uncle, he argues for immediate and radical action. “Politicians are joking with our lives. People believe they are not serious about dealing with murderers,” he says.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008
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