The hanging paradox

JUDGES STILL pronounce the death sentence when juries return a guilty verdict for capital murder in this country. But it appears they are acting in vain even though they do what the law stipulates.

So that even though there are about 60 murder convicts on Death Row awaiting execution they may not face the gallows. There have been no hangings since February 1988; and the murder rate has soared.

The concern here is not so much for the dispatch of guilty killers but for the due process of law; if there is compelling reason to subvert the process then change the law so that at least the notion of a society following its own rules can be preserved.

We face the paradox of a UK Privy Council ruling stymying the application of the death penalty. As the Attorney-General sees it, the Privy Council ruling in the Neville Lewis case could not be complied with in five years; or else the Constitution would have to be amended.

And yet there is the contrary view of Appeal Court Judge Mr. Justice Henderson Downer that the UK Privy Council had no authority to review the Governor-General's prerogative of mercy and that its ruling in this matter should be ignored.

It seems to us that this conundrum strikes at the very notion of what it means to be an independent nation. On the one hand the nation faces a critical problem of crime and violence in which murder is the most fearful component.

We have argued before that the fact that hanging has been suspended for over 13 years has removed a deterrent which could well have stayed many a killing in domestic disputes.

We are also aware of the strong human rights lobby against the death penalty in some metropolitan countries. But we doubt that this sentiment has taken root here among the majority in a country where murder is still rampant.

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner.

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