Dear Editor,
It is to me a ludicrous situation that in this ‘civilised’ age we should even have a debate about the justification of the death penalty. With the benefit of so much scientific knowledge, extensive research and historical experience at our disposal, and the wisdom and reason which should have resulted from these, it is only logical to assume that human beings would have become so enlightened as to have already rejected this barbaric practice in the administration of justice.
Added to this, the oft-quoted truism that ‘violence begets violence’ seems only to be applied when it suits our purpose at getting others to adopt a culture of peacefulness.
I proffer now that unless we believe that no human being has the right to take another’s life, war, murder and other forms of violence would always be there to blight our existence and obstruct any efforts at creating a world of peace and justice. Unless we accept that love and respect for the life of every other human being should inform the response to all our problems, then we shall continue to live in a state of imbalance and strife, no matter what progress we make in economic and all other areas of our living.
Is it not reasonable to accept that the justice system must be naturally more reformative than punitive? The persons who perpetrate murder and other criminal acts, are they not products of our own society to whom we owe at least the obligation to help reform so they become useful human beings? Does anyone or any society have the right to condemn any of its own without giving them the opportunity for this reform? Are we saying that we do not possess ‒ especially when we have criminals in our custody for any period of time ‒ the will and the means to facilitate such reform?
In this effort to expedite the solution to this brutal practice, which I feel was simply inherited from the more ‘advanced countries’, please let us use our natural qualities of love, fairness and empathy. Our humanity and Guyanese bigheartedness would be severely marred if we don’t.
Yours faithfully,
Roy Paul
