A look at the death penalty

Jul 23, 2016 News

By Oscar Ramjeet
To hang or not to hang has been a topic in Guyana, the Caribbean and the entire free world for several decades. It became a hot debate in Guyana following the visit of Justice Navi Pillay of the International Commission against Death Penalty, and his discussions with government officials and workshop with Judges and Magistrates.
The Commission is calling on the Guyana Government to remove the death penalty from the statute books, and President David Granger, responded, that he would be guided by the decision taken by lawmakers and if possible, from all Guyanese by way of referendum.
It is not an easy decision to make because there are strong arguments for and against the death penalty.
“Thou shall not kill” is the sixth commandment. “An eye for an eye” is in Genesis in the Old Testament, but Jesus said according to Matthew 5.37 “turn the other cheek”.. in other words no retaliation.
I am not in favour of the death penalty, so much so, that in the 1990s while I was Chief Prosecutor
(Acting DPP) in St. Vincent I prosecuted several murder cases. Three persons in two cases were convicted and sentenced to death by hanging. Although I won the cases I was not all happy that they were sentenced to death by hanging. The Judge had no choice, but to impose the mandatory death sentence.
I had a restless night when the first one, a 21-year-old was sentenced. I later made recommendation to the Mercy Committee for the death sentence to be commuted to life imprisonment. All three were spared the hangman’s noose.
As a matter of fact, although the death penalty remains in the statute books in most Caribbean Community states, there was no execution for the past two decades in the region. Barbados removed capital punishment a few years ago and there is no death penalty in the dependent states of Anguilla, British Virgin Islands, Montserrat, Turks and Caicos, Cayman Islands, and Bermuda, but Jamaica recently passed legislation retaining the death penalty while the Co-operative Republic of Guyana retained capital punishment only in certain cases.
Statistics show that 105 countries which are members of the United Nations have abolished the death penalty for all crimes, and six abolished but retain it for exceptional or special circumstances.
Perhaps I should state that 47 countries which retained it have not used it for at least 10 years.
Muslim countries which abide by Sharia law prescribe various forms of capital punishment for certain offences. The punishment includes decapitating, stoning and execution by firing squad. China also imposes the death penalty as do several states in the US.
If the Guyana government decides to deal with the issue by way of a referendum which is a very
expensive exercise, it should seek to amend the Constitution to deal with a few burning issues including the appointment of Chancellor and Chief Justice.