by Oscar Ramjeet


A woman was beheaded in Belize; a teenage girl’s head was bashed in beyond recognition and her body placed in a suitcase and thrown into a river in Guyana; a young girl was carved up in Jamaica; and there are reports of heinous crimes in St Lucia, in Trinidad and Tobago, and all the other Caribbean islands, which have activated calls for the reintroduction of the death penalty.

In fact, the Minister of Justice in Trinidad and Tobago, Hubert Volney, who was an outspoken judge, said that persons convicted of gruesome murder should be hanged in public.

National Security Minister, John Sandy, as well as Transport Minister, Jack Warner, are also in favour of the death penalty.

However, a prominent human rights attorney in Port of Spain, Senior Counsel Douglas Mendes, said that death penalty would have no effect on gang related murders in Trinidad and Tobago.

Moreover, the twin island republic is signatory to a number of international human rights conventions and treaties that will definitely stall judicial executions.

Jamaica recently passed legislation retaining the death penalty, and Guyana last week passed laws to retain hanging but only in certain cases; and while the debate is on about continuing judicial execution, the European Union (EU) is totally against the death penalty. In fact, the EU has strengthened public opposition and is putting pressure on retentionist countries to abolish the death penalty, or at least introduce a moratorium as a first step.

October 10 was designed as the World Day against the Death Penalty. A report carried in the Jamaica Gleaner stated that there are now 139 countries that have abandoned the death penalty, which excludes the Christian states of the Caribbean. It said that the forecast is for more countries to join the movement in the coming year. With increasing conversions to Islam, for the first time the number of Muslims worldwide -- approximately 1.8 billion -- now surpasses followers of the diminishing Roman Catholic faith of approximately 1.3 billion, but still the largest Christian religion.

It seems unlikely that Muslim countries, which abide by Sharia law, which prescribes various forms of capital punishment for certain offences, would be influenced by the EU's abolitionist movement anytime soon. Other major antagonists, including China and the US, also promise to be uncompromising on the issue.

Jamaica strongly supports capital punishment, but has not carried out an execution for many years because of restrictions placed on Jamaica's legal system by rulings of the Privy Council. Unlike Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, and Guyana, Jamaica has not yet moved through constitutional change to neutralise the restriction on the death penalty for executions to proceed. In 2009, apart from the stunning total number of homicides at 1,680, the nature of the killings is a very important factor that the EU seems not to understand.

Since there has been an increase of brutal murders in Belize, there have been calls from several quarters for the resumption of hanging. Last Saturday night, a prominent attorney, Richard Stuart, and his charming chartered accountant wife, Maria, were brutally murdered -- 25 stab wounds each.

Meanwhile the age old question -- to hang or not to hang -- continues.

October 23, 2010

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