Today's observances as 'World Day Against the Death Penalty' are unlikely to attract much support or sympathy from a majority of Jamaicans.

As such, we do not expect that the call by the Independent Jamaican Council for Human Rights (IJCHR), the local representatives of Amnesty International and some members of the Roman Catholic community for the abolition of the death penalty in Jamaica, will gain much traction with the Government.

Public opinion over the years has demonstrated overwhelming support for the reintroduction of capital punishment amid residual anger with governments for failing to follow the law in respect of murders. The country's spiralling high murder rates have only reinforced this anger.

Sometimes governments must go against the tide of public opinion to do what is right, hoping that in the long run, a majority of people will come around to see their point of view. We have yet to be persuaded that this is one of the issues on which it should adopt such a stance.

While we support the work of our civic action groups in demanding higher accountability and professionalism from agents of the State in their dealings with civilians, we are not convinced by the arguments put forward by some of these same groups in relation to capital punishment.

We note, for example, that in a statement to mark today's observances, that the ICJHR has urged the Government of Jamaica to vote in favour of a resolution moved at the United Nations on September 25 by the Prime Minister of Italy calling for a universal moratorium on the death penalty. The Government should do nothing of the sort.

We have no desire to be witnesses to an orgy of hanging at the Spanish Town gallows, but justice demands that persons tried and convicted of murder pay the penalty for their crime. The Italian Prime Minister, Professor Romano Prodi, claimed that to implement the terms of his resolution would be a demonstration that "human kind is making progress not only in science but also in the field of ethics".

Whose ethics? The push for justice must include addressing the concerns of a society plagued by rampant murders.

A climate of peace and forgiveness cannot be fostered in an atmosphere where people are able wantonly to snuff out the lives of others and then themselves plead successfully for mercy.

The new government has indicated that a resolution on a conscience vote on the death penalty may be brought to the Jamaican Parliament soon. This, of course,would not be the first such.

In a 'free conscience vote', the House of Representatives voted on January 30, 1979, for the retention of the death penalty, while the Senate later voted for a limited suspension. We suspect that, again, most of the MPs would vote in accordance with majority public sentiment. If they do, then the next step should be to take the necessary steps to address this foot dragging in relation to capital punishment.

Despite arguments that the Pratt and Morgan ruling from the United Kingdom -based Privy Council has effectively stymied hanging in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean, there is a considerable body of legal opinion suggesting that capital punishment can, in fact, be carried out.

Capital punishment for murder may not be a deterrent to murderers. It is simply a matter of justice and the law as it currently stands.