Dear Editor,

Minister of national security Robert Montague has stated that he will be looking into the feasibility of resuming hanging. This, on paper, sounds good with Jamaica’s high crime rate, but upon closer inspection it is a non-starter.

Jamaica is beholden to the Privy Council and they have ruled against the death penalty, not only that, they have ruled that excessive delays in administering the death penalty is a violation of human rights. So how will the Jamaica Labour Party’s position square with that of the Privy Council?

Another issue brought up by this is the fact that the police simply can’t put together a convincing case for the court.

For whatever reason, sometimes corruption, sometimes incompetence, the wrong person is brought to trial. Even in the mighty United States we see cases of police mishandling of cases and people on death row exonerated via DNA. Let me state that I do not trust ‘Squaddie’ with that power, especially in a country where police routinely mishandle cases, to put it mildly, and where government prosecutors regularly push cases with flimsy evidence.

The death penalty will deter those involved in domestic disputes, and that accounts for roughly half of the murders, but what of gang violence?

A person involved in scamming doesn’t care about the law, and will not be hindered by the death penalty. With the US being the prime example, it maintains the death penalty and still has the highest crime rate of any other country in the industrialized world.

No, instead of the death penalty, we should be aiming to nip the crime issue in the bud. Youth outreach by the police, a stronger education system, a more robust social safety net and ready employment, those are really the only ways to ensure the crime really ends. And again instead of hanging, why not try actually catching them first and building a proper case, because as things stand a murderer has an over fifty per cent chance of not getting caught, and that breeds confidence in the criminals.

With the death penalty clearly not the answer, hopefully the minister looks at police reform and building a real anti-crime platform with other ministries. If not we will simply have state executing people at a quick pace because the crime won’t end.

Alexander Scott