I am simply compelled to respond to Yanique Browns's argument against capital punishment as expressed in her letter of December 15, titled 'other ways to punish'.

Yanique has challenged the moral grounds upon which the government of Jamaica can justify its decision to reinstate the death penalty. She makes the point that the taking of the murderer's life is nothing more than state-sponsored murder.

International statistic

She has further supported her position by pointing to the international true statistics which indicate that countries that have abolished the death penalty have lower murder rates than those that retain it, and that the probability of executing the innocent should be the reason the government should abandon the practice.

She could have also added that capital punishment is simply a form of unforgiveness and backward looking retribution that seek to equate punishment with the gravity of offence, an approach that would find the government exceeding the brutality of the offender in trying to even the score on the scale of justice. She could also have included the point that if sanctity of life is the reason government takes life, then the state finds itself in a morally self-contradictory position in executing persons who kill.

Finally, Yanique could have reminded us that death penalty does not discourage murder because by executing the offender, we teach him no lesson that he would be able to use to better his ways, given that he is dead. In addition, we teach no lesson to the person who might kill, given that the prospective offender has no reason to contemplate the consequences of a murder that he/she has not yet committed.

Harsh reality

Up to three years ago, I took the identical position as Yanique has taken against the death penalty. Today, however, the harsh reality of Jamaica's alarming and growing murder rate has forced me to reconsider my position. Here are my reasons for supporting the death penalty in Jamaica:

1. While in every other country in which capital punishment has been abolished, there has been a drastic decline in murder rate, that is not the case in Jamaica. On this island, the killer is emboldened by the sense that nobody is in charge or is able to punish wrongdoing.

2. The Jamaican murderer has shown that he will kill as many people as he can, so long as he has the opportunity. Therefore, we should execute him, not to teach a lesson, but rather, to save other lives.

3.Whereas murder was the last choice in violent behaviour in past Jamaica, it has become weapon of first choice in today's Jamaica. If killers can enjoy the benefit of moral outrage against killing, so can the government that executes them. If Yanique cannot agree with this position, then she should ask herself whether she is working by double standards of morality and righteous indignation.

4. The day when Yanique's own life is put at risk by one of the bloodthirsties will be the day she too will become a new convert to the wisdom of capital punishment in modern Jamaica. I recommend the retention of the death penalty as a deterrent in JAMAICA ONLY.

It is probably the only place on earth that has seen a drastic rise in the murder rate when the country suspended the death penalty. Consequently, in the case of Jamaica, we have to look at what drives the criminal mindset.

I am, etc.,

RONALD E.A. BLAKE

reablake@hotmail.com

Via Go-Jamaica