(Jamaica Observer) Government of Jamaica is again being urged to abolish the death penalty and take measures to reduce the nation’s murder rate.
The latest prompting comes from United Kingdom Queen’s Counsel Baroness Scotland during a lecture at the Norman Manley Law School, University of the West Indies, Mona, last Wednesday.
Baroness Scotland said that, instead of hanging, Jamaica should enhance the investigative capacity of the police and improve the justice system. With Justice Minister Mark Golding and a number of justices, including Chief Justice Zaila McCalla, looking on, she also suggested the implementation of social programmes to intervene in the lives of troubled youth before they start committing serious crimes.
It has been shown, she said, that capital punishment doesn’t deter murder.
Baroness Scotland, who had held key posts in UK Government and legal system, said that the likelihood of being caught and convicted along with the seizing of assets prove a far more effective method of deterring criminals from committing murders.
“Take their house, boat, their bling…,” Baroness Scotland said.
The UWI lecture — which also saw former Switzerland President Madame Ruth Dreifuss fielding questions from the audience — was just one of the stops as the two visit different Caribbean states to discuss and encourage the abolition of the death penalty. The Baroness, a Dominican by birth, said that the UK was also in talks with the United States about that country abolishing capital punishment.
Jamaica hasn’t carried out the death penalty since the late 1980s due to a self-imposed moratorium. But the death penalty is still being prescribed in the circuit courts. Lawmakers have voted recently to keep capital punishment on the books.
During the British High Commission-sponsored lecture, Baroness Scotland said that a moratorium wasn’t sufficient, adding that “sorry is not good enough” for loved ones of those wrongfully convicted and executed. She also encouraged listeners to get the debate going on the subject.
The Baroness, whose review of the British justice system resulted in reform that led a reduction in murders, said that the time has come for Jamaica to make the death penalty a thing of the past.
