Hanging is barbarous
published: Tuesday | October 4, 2005

THE EDITOR, Sir:

I WAS sorry to read both the content and the tone of The Gleaner's article on Sunday 'Hope for Hanging'. I regret the content because I believe that for the State to deliberately kill people will increase the spiral of violence in Jamaica and not reduce it. I regret the tone because you seem to 'hope' for the resumption of the death penalty as a good thing, and I do not.

Hanging was a barbarous colonial punishment designed to keep rebellious Jamaicans in order, and it never worked. It simply ingrained the concept that we must be brutal in order to survive. Hanging legitimises the idea that it is OK to take life by way of revenge - which is precisely the mindset which we condemn when it leads to revenge killings in the inner city or mob killings in the country villages.

In Britain, I represented the Birmingham Six and other Irish prisoners, and I met the black prisoners convicted of killing a policeman during a riot. They would have been hanged under the old British law, as they were among the most hated of prisoners. They all turned out to be innocent. Our system in Jamaica is more fallible than Britain's. I hope we will never revert to hanging. Only God can be finally sure of who is guilty and who is innocent, and the taking of life, in my humble view, should be left to Him.

I am, etc.,

ANTHONY GIFFORD

1gifford@kasnet.com

Attorney-at-law

122-126 Tower Street,

Kingston