Dear Editor,

Jamaicans are again calling for hanging to resume. The nation has been quiet on this matter for some time. Nevertheless, some crimes seem to grip the national consciousness so as to make us wish for the perpetrators to be removed permanently from society.

The incident of the mother and her four young children being slaughtered in Clarendon traumatised all well-thinking Jamaicans.

The Director of Public Prosecutions Paula Llewellyn is seeking the death penalty. The overwhelming global trend is to abolish the death penalty. Some, however, continue to give reasons for executions to resume.

There is a fallacy that if we make punishments harsher and crueller, it will cause would-be murderers to think twice before committing crimes. This usually comes from those who are hurting and in grief. The call from one mourner at that home was, ” …'[I]m fi ‘ang, im fi ‘ang, ‘im fi ‘ang.” But since Canada stopped executing, the murder rate has dropped by 44 per cent. Given such statistics, will stopping executions stop murders? Jamaica stopped executions and murders have increased. I am suggesting that simplified statistics do not seem to provide an answer.

In cases where the death penalty is in place for non-violent offences, offenders are deprived of the opportunity to reform. Globally, many on death row have acknowledged their crimes and reformed. Indeed, properly conceived and implemented criminal justice systems have had great success without the threat of death.

There are many recorded cases of innocent people who have been executed. In the united states, 170 people have been exonerated after serving time on death row when technological advancements like DNA proved them innocent.

In 1873 William Jackson Marion bought some horses from his friend John Cameron in Beatrice, Nebraska. Shortly after, Cameron went missing. Later, a body with gunshot wounds in clothes similar to what Cameron was wearing was located later. Marion was tracked down, tried, convicted, and hanged. Four years later, Cameron reappeared. Alive and well. He had been in Mexico hiding from a woman who told him she was bearing his child.

Retribution is on the minds of many who ask for the death penalty. Some say all guilty people deserve to be punished. Others say guilty people deserve to be punished in proportion to the severity of their crime. This is the argument offered by my friend — a lawyer no less — when he gave me the biblical “eye for an eye” response, which makes one wonder how would the penalty for a guilty rapist be determined.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness visited the family who lost the five members. He promised to “put a stop” to such crimes. Respectfully, Prime Minister Holness, that is arrant nonsense. These are the kind of promises that cause simple-minded folk to take you at your word and then condemn you for deceiving them when the killings do not stop.

Similarly, the police should stop making promises to put an end to violent crime, simply because these are impossible to achieve without a radical shift in how we respond to human behaviour. Our violence problem is not a police problem since neither the prime minister nor the police force can look into the hearts and minds of men and determine why, what, where, and when certain acts will take place.

Part of the problem was a long time in the making. Family life has been deteriorating for decades. Most of the unions now are just loveless, transactional arrangements. Children are, in many cases, unwanted intrusions in the lives of women who lack resources and support. The children see and feel this and are troubled by it. Abuse and neglect breed monsters — angry, vengeful demons.

When people drive around in cars spraying bullets indiscriminately and killing at wakes, funerals, dances, or dominoes, there is a lazy, thoughtless response from the police. It is either “gang” violence or “reprisals”. But what kind of person kills indiscriminately? Just anybody? I cannot imagine myself doing these things to another person because my family member was killed. Could it be because I grew up with a mother and a father and had prayers every morning?

As part of the long-term strategy to reduce violent crime, has any Administration attempted to have these perpetrators tested to determine psychopathy? The consensus from scientists is that there is no cure for psychopathy, which is characterised by antisocial behaviour, untruthfulness, irresponsibility, and lack of remorse or empathy. No medication can be precribed to prevent murder, and no amount of therapy can change an uncaring mind.

May I suggest that rather than making wild baseless promises to reduce murders in short order, the relevant government agencies engage in research to ascertain, for example, the reasons for reduced grey matter in the brains of some of our children.

In the meantime, these monsters are among us, making our lives a living hell. There is no cure for them. Science says so. The choice, therefore, is ours — execution or free lodging and health care for the rest of their lives.

Glenn Tucker

glenntucker2011@gmail.com