Cassius Stuart has made somewhat of a name for himself on the Bahamian political scene. He has done so by using the one trick politicians resort to when they wish to be seen and heard by people who would ordinarily ignore them. They grab headlines.
Some time ago, Stuart managed to commandeer the spotlight when he pulled off a dramatic caper in the House of Assembly. To wit, he chained himself to the Speakerﾴs Mace, whereupon both he and the Speakerﾴs symbol of authority were carted off to the police station.As the record shows, he got away with that maneuver.
And now today, the same headline grabbing political neophyte and social gadfly is at it again. This time around, he achieved his purpose by calling for the state to resort to any number of blood-curdling responses to crime. If Stuart were to have his way, The Bahamas would descend into an orgy of god-awful human rights abuses, inclusive of castration for rapists and child-molesters.
The point we make is that opinions like the ones put forward by Stuart and others such, should ﾖin this day and age- be treated with the contempt they so richly deserve. With this in mind, it is our considered judgment and conclusion that the Ministry of National Security should not have responded as it did to whatever so-called ﾓopinionsﾒ Cassius Stuart wished to air. Thatﾴs his right.
But surely, nothing is ever to be gained if every time some drivel flows, somebody rushes in to wipe it up. There are always better uses for the time one has on his hands. It should not be wasted in futile debate and discussion with those whose only occupation seems to be that of ﾓgrabbing headlinesﾒ.
Now were we minded to take on Mr. Stuart, we would remind him of one of the major impediments standing in the way of such draconian penalties. In aid of better understanding the issue, let us put the issue in a rhetorical frame: what do you say to a person who is maimed as just punishment, and then discover that he was innocent.
Or for that matter, what do you say if an innocent person is executed? Would, we ask, about the explanation: Oops, Sorry!
It is precisely this kind of matter that is currently impelling any number of sensible people to re-think knee-jerk reactions to delimiting the right parameters of crime and punishment in a civilized society.
In this regard, it is instructive to note the work of The Innocence Project at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. It was created by Barry C. Scheck and Peter J. Neufeld in 1992. It was set up as and remains a non-profit legal clinic. This Project only handles cases where post conviction DNA testing of evidence can yield conclusive proof of innocence. As a clinic, students handle the casework while supervised by a team of attorneys and clinic staff.
Most of the clients are poor, forgotten, and have used up all of their legal avenues for relief. The hope they all have is that biological evidence from their cases still exists and can be subjected to DNA testing.As we have learned all Innocence Project clients go through an extensive screening process to determine whether or not DNA testing of evidence could prove their claims of innocence. Thousands currently await evaluation of their cases.
And again, as we have discovered DNA testing has been a major factor in changing the criminal justice system in the United States of America.It has provided scientific proof that the system convicts and sentences innocent people — and that wrongful convictions are not isolated or rare events. Most importantly, DNA testing has opened a window into wrongful convictions so that we may study the causes and propose remedies that may minimize the chances that more innocent people are convicted.
One example serves to illustrate the point.
On Monday, August 26, 2002, Eddie Joe Lloyd was exonerated and released from prison. Several rounds of DNA testing that took place over the last year have proven that Lloyd is innocent of the murder for which he served over 17 years.
As we know, Lloyd was convicted of a brutal 1984 murder of a sixteen-year-old girl in Detroit, Michigan.
And also as we now know, he was innocent. Cassius Stuart and others like him should think about that. If they did, they might just get the point that state sanctioned barbarism is no panacea for the ills which plague The Commonwealth of The Bahamas.
Editorial, The Bahama Journal
