PAUL Phillips, the man who earlier this month accidentally killed his daughter while attempting to protect the family from thugs at their Havendale, St Andrew home, has added his voice to the death penalty debate

Phillips told the Observer last Friday that the Government should now reinstate capital punishment in order to stem the island’s soaring murder rate and bring back some semblance of respect for law and order within the society.

“I think the death penalty would be a deterrent. In days gone by men use to say, ‘If mi neva did ago hang mi woulda kill you’, but now because no hanging is going on gunmen kill without fear,” Phillips told the Observer, following a memorial service for his daughter, Pia at the St John the Baptist Catholic Church in Patrick City, St Andrew.

According to the police, Pia, the late head girl of the Immaculate Conception High School, was accidentally shot on November 1 – the day she turned 18 – by her father, whose licensed firearm went off when he fell while running to the assistance of his family.

The Constabulary Communication Network (CCN) said Pia and other family members were approached by gunmen, who pulled up outside the gate of their Riverside Drive home and demanded that they come to them. The family had just returned home from choir practice.

Though the death penalty is still on the books, no execution has taken place in Jamaica for 20 years.

Parliamentarians are expected to make a conscience vote on whether to reinstate the death penalty.