Dear Editor,
I have long been an advocate of the death penalty, and this belief has been further strengthened in the face of the current ever-increasing homicides occurring in my native land. Sad to say, the murder rate in any country is a reliable indicator of the value that its citizens place on human lives. It can also be viewed as indicative of the country’s cultural level. On December 20, 2012 Resolution 67/176 passed by the United Nations General Assembly called on Guyana along with several other countries around the world to suspend the death penalty, merely based on the premise that any miscarriage or failure of justice in the implementation of the death penalty is irreversible and irreparable. Sadly, there are some other countries around the world such as Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, China, Iraq, Iran that still have the death penalty. Furthermore, in countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia, simple drug-trafficking earns a death sentence. The Prime Minister of Trinidad, Mrs Kamla Persad-Bissessar has also called for a return of the death penalty, despite the motion being previously defeated in Parliament.
Hanging may seem barbarous, but the greater barbarity lies in the slow abandonment of our common law traditions. The recent brutal murder of septuagenarian Carmin Ganesh in her own home in Montrose, all caught on videotape has catapulted into my conscious psyche, resulting in a call for the reciprocal eye- for-an-eye type punishment. Simple common sense bolstered by statistics would inform us that in the past the death penalty did deter murder. Let us not be deluded; people fear nothing more than death. Therefore, nothing will deter a criminal more than the fear of death; life in prison is less feared. Murderers clearly prefer it to execution, otherwise, they would not try to be sentenced to life in prison instead of death. As a consequence, a life sentence must be less of a deterrent than a death sentence.
In addition we must hang murderers as long as it is possible that their hanging protects citizens from future murders. The police are now armed with rock solid evidence of the entire ordeal, along with the novice-type zany behaviour of the murderer. In the final analysis this very brazen act caught on tape is emblematic of a much larger problem than the gerontocide rate; instead it is reflective of a feeble criminal justice system, a poorly structured and under-resourced police system and failure to install deterrent measures.
Death by murder has become too commonplace and tough times have always called for equally tough measures. The country will move ahead once the murderers like their victims are dead.
Yours faithfully,
Yvonne Sam
