Blood hath been shed ere now,

i’ the olden time…

Ay, and since too, murders have been perform’d

Too terrible for the ear.

– Shakespeare,Macbeth III, 4

Murders too terrible for the ears and eyes have been taking place from the dawn of time, for the heart of man is intrinsically wicked. Wasn’t it Cain who killed his brother Abel, as reported in the Bible? Was that the start of the relentless bloodbath that has beset mankind for centuries and seems to continue unabated?

Many names have been ascribed to murder, from homicide, fratricide, genocide, infanticide, regicide, assassination, to suicide, if you murder yourself. Different names for the same result, taking life.

The difference is, in times gone by, people would pay the ultimate price for murder; in effect, their lives would be taken from them in return. Remember, the Bible did say, an eye for an eye.

Murderers were executed by the State utilising various means, ranging from hanging, decapitation by sword, or as the French popularised, the guillotine. Firing squad, gas chamber, lethal injection and even stoning prevailed. They were executed.

I remember reading this book and seeing the movie titled Executioner’s Song, which told the true story of Gary Gilmore, a convicted murderer on death row in the USA, who actually lobbied for his own execution. It was so long ago, but I still remember it.

We’ll examine this, right after these responses to ‘What women are to men’.

Sir

Thank you for your very good article this morning. My coffee went down very well. This is from a female of a certain age. Regarding your footnote on tradesmen and women, we also need quality dressmakers, tailors and shoe repairers of a high standard.

Respect.

Oppolene

Hey Tony,

Many men see women in different stages of their lives, but the ideal situation is when they are friends, grow up together as best friends, then become lovers and finally get married and grow old together as friends and lovers. Yes, the man did see the woman differently in different stages, yet it was with the same man and woman at different stages. And they lived happily ever after.

Sheila

There was a time in the world’s history when murderers were caught, tried, convicted and executed. Not only murder was punishable by execution, but so was treason, rape, kidnapping, spying, adultery, and even corruption committed by public officials. The last is still carried out in China, as corrupt public officials who commit crimes against the people or State are executed. Execution is still carried out in many countries, including the USA where lethal injection is the preferred method.

Back in cowboy days, horse thieves were hanged right there on the spot, and as the old saying goes, “Men are not hanged for stealing horses, but that horses may not be stolen.” That was the conventional wisdom of the time.

Hangings were also carried out in Jamaica up until 1988, and I remember a hangman by the name of Wonder from my childhood days. There is no hangman now, no executioner. In France they used the more direct guillotine, supposedly invented by Monsieur Joseph Guillotin, that decapitated those found guilty of various crimes. Even their queen, Marie Antoinette, was not spared, neither was Monsieur Guillotin himself, who was a most unwilling participant in the use of his feared machine. The point is people paid the ultimate price for their crimes.

Death row is alive, but no one is being executed here, even though many people are calling for the death penalty to be brought back. The truth is, murder seems to be going on unabated with no end in sight, and the other truth is, the murderers are doing their grisly deeds with impunity and laughing at society. They pay no price.

They shoot, they stab, they chop and they boast about it. Even if they do get caught and sentenced, they live eating, drinking, breathing, enjoying the very gift of life that they robbed their victims of.

Some sectors of society even object to them being subjected to harsh treatment, citing human rights violations. Compare that to what violations they foisted on their victims as they snuffed out their lives. Even babies and children are not spared as they succumb to the Grim Reaper.

Still, there is murder and there is murder, and even though the result is the same, circumstances alter cases. If two men get into a fight and one punches the other, who then falls and hits his head and dies, it’s murder. But that survivor does not deserve the death penalty. If a woman is beaten to a pulp by her man for years, and one day she strikes back and does him in, that’s also different. Women aren’t usually executed anyway, but you get my point. Just an aside, but there is a new breed of female shottas nowadays, what about them, aren’t women calling for gender equality? Bullets have no gender.

When you have men who treat murder like it’s a national sport or open bird shooting season taking multiple lives at will, earning nicknames such as Tek Life, Duppy Maker, Fifteen (for the number of murders committed), Widow Maker, Shotta, then what do you do with those thugs?

Oh yes, send them to jail for a few years where ‘they will be rehabilitated’. More than likely they’ll take up classes, as they have so much time on their hands, get immersed in the Bible and turn good Christians. We will hear their stories and say, “Oh, he has changed his murderous ways, he is rehabilitated, he is a good man.”

Meanwhile, the victims are long gone, forgotten by the media, remembered only by close friends and relatives, only for new victims to be created every day. The opponents of execution say that execution is not a deterrent to murder. Well, guess what, I do not care. Execution is punishment, and if even one man thinks twice about it before he does the deed, then that’s one victim saved.

The fact is the murderer is taken out of the equation, never to kill again. Statistics will show that many killers do so again upon release from prison. Do the terms menace to society, serial killer, psychopathic killer resonate with you? Some are simply beyond help.

And yet, armchair experts will always make excuses and find reasons and justification why people commit murder. “Oh, he had a terrible childhood, he had no father, his mother abused him, he was unstable, unloved, bipolar….” The cold hard truth is he is just a stone cold, hard, wicked, dog heart killer who has no mercy for man, woman, or child. What do you do with such a person?

“Why did you kill those three people?”

“Dem diss me.”

When are we going to realise that some men have no heart, no conscience, no morals, and are just plain evil? Good exists, so does evil, and evil must be eliminated. But they talk and talk, and the murder rate climbs and climbs, and they talk some more.

There is the question of executing the wrong person, and Lord knows that must be a terrible fate for an innocent man. People have been framed, set up, denied evidence that would prove them innocent, sent to prison and executed. Others have been released after many years, due to DNA evidence exonerating them.

DNA should be the deciding factor. If it’s proven by DNA or multiple credible witnesses that so and so was a murderer, then he should pay the ultimate price. Let’s not forget the knee-jerk emotions of retribution for the killing of a loved one, but the fact is nothing is being done to stem this deadly tide of murderous mayhem.

If you don’t want to execute them, then do something else, lock them away in solitary for life, send a message that there are consequences for their heinous actions. Instead, they roam free like rats in a sewer. Over 1,000 murders per year, yet who pays the price apart from the victims? Justice must not only be done, it must appear to be done.

Many won’t share my views, as we’ve become ‘civilised’, ‘cultured’, ‘sophisticated’, have read some books and believe in using psychological catch phrases that sound nice on TV as they talk themselves to death. But guess what, the killers don’t talk to death, they cause death and pay no price.

The Executioner’s Song should be read or watched, as one murderer told why he should be executed.

More time.

seido1@hotmail.com

Footnote:

Did you know that there are Jamaicans who live on this small island who have never seen the sea? A few weeks ago we went on our annual karate beach training at Flavour Beach, Runaway Bay, on the north coast. Much to my surprise, there were students in high school, plus graduates from prominent high schools in Kingston, who never ever saw the ocean before. When we approached the venue and they spotted the sea, the ooohs and ahhhs and screams were deafening. And when they actually went into the water, it was a joy to behold. Not only that, but some had never seen a live cow before. I kid you not. We take so much for granted.