Despite the majority of Bahamians supporting capital punishment, Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham said that isn’t going to happen anytime soon.
Instead, the government is considering making a “life” sentence actually mean “for life.”
The Prime Minister said he understands that many Bahamians are frustrated with the high level of crime in the country. That frustration is shared by most of the Caribbean and even in the United States where acts of violence have increased significantly.
However, Mr Ingraham said swift executions are something that probably will not be a reality in the near future, if ever.
This will naturally add to the severe crime problem in the Bahamas, where there is really no rule of law anyway, despite claims otherwise by the government and members of the legal community. The court system is completely dysfunctional. Crooked police officers and lawyers, corrupt court employees and a criminally-minded society have undermined any possibility of victims ever receiving justice.
So, it is not surprising that murderers will go unpunished.
And it is unlikely that laws will be changed to accommodate public sentiment. Constant appeals lead to more legal work, which keeps crooked lawyers in business.
Meanwhile, PLP leader Perry Christie said in his national address that if the Progressive Liberal Party is elected to government in 2012, they will carry out the law as it relates to hanging.
Of course, Mr Christie can not be taken seriously as he has made too many promises and never lived up to them.
Mr Ingraham declined to comment on Mr Christie’s statement but did say he was happy that Mr Christie was able to address the nation on national television.
“When I was in opposition it was not possible for me to do so. With one radio station I couldn’t buy time to be able to address the nation. He has a right to do so and I applaud him for doing so. I also want to point out that while he was prime minister I found no record of a national address by him in his five years in office,” Ingraham reportedly said.
No hangings were carried out under the PLP administration. The last time a convicted murderer was hanged was in January, 2000 under an FNM administration.
The Freeport News recently published an editorial on the topic of hanging saying, “We must be realistic and accept that the days of execution in The Bahamas are over.”
And just yesterday, the Nassau Guardian published an article showing the hypocrisy that has occurred in the Privy Council regarding hanging, reminding readers that in 1995, the Privy Council rejected the argument that the mandatory death penalty was unconstitutional.
In 2008, Bahamas Justice Dame Joan Sawyer commented on the effect of the 2006 decision. She said, “As far as society was concerned the conviction was valid. We now have to come back to these cases more than 10 years after the Privy Council declared the mandatory death penalty constitutional in Larry Raymond Jones. The system cannot withstand these vicissitudes.”
Later, in 2006, a Privy Council comprised of different justices with an obvious legislative agenda, found that the mandatory death penalty was considered cruel and inhuman punishment. The court found that the mandatory death penalty fettered the judge’s discretion to consider the convicts’ personal circumstances and the facts of their crimes.
Yet, by making decisions that continuously reject the death penalty, as in the Max Tido case, the Privy Council itself has fettered the judge’s discretion to consider the facts of the crimes and sentence murderers to death.
How hypocritical.
