Dear Editor,
As the bloody crime wave continues to ravage the nation, it is heartening to hear that the government is heeding calls for hangings to resume. Kudos for President Bharrat Jagdeo who reaffirms that he will sign death warrants for cases that land on his desk.
Recently, a resident of Bartica demanded the death penalty for convicted killers and Guyana’s Inter-Religious Organisations (IRO) has declared that there should be the enforcement of capital punishment as stipulated by the laws of Guyana.
The IRO Chairman, Bishop Juan Edghill, believes that such punishment is part of religious beliefs, and as such he says, “we are for capital punishment.”
Meanwhile, a recent Associated Press (AP) story is reporting that several “Studies say the death penalty deters crime.”
The AP says that a series of academic studies over the last half-dozen years settles debate of whether the death penalty acts as a deterrent to murder. The analyses say clearly that it does.
“There is no question about it,” the AP reports Dr. Naci Mocan, an economics professor at the University of Colorado, as saying. “The conclusion is there is a deterrent effect.”
Most Guyanese would tell you that they believe when the late President Desmond Hoyte started hanging “kick down the door” murderers there was a drastic drop in banditry around the country.
After a fair trial, persons convicted of murder must be hanged expeditiously. They should not be allowed to just live in jail only to break out and go on a crime spree, slaughtering innocent men and women and children across the country as is now happening.
Yours faithfully,
Justin de Freitas
