Hartley Neita, Contributor
SAM SHARPE was hanged by the authorities. So, too, were Paul Bogle and George William Gordon and scores of their followers.
Before them, pirates were hanged, and after they died, their bodies were sometimes stuffed in iron gibbets and hung in the sun until their flesh melted and dried on their bones.
Others had their heads cut off their bodies and stuck on poles as a warning. And that warning was not meant to prevent others from committing murders and other crimes, but to tell them that if they did that is how their lives would end.
All these men, of course, had human rights, but that philosophy was not yet conceived.
About 45 years ago a man named Leslie Hylton murdered his wife. Hylton was a very special Jamaican. He played cricket for Lucas cricket club and for Jamaica, and in playing in six Test Matches for the West Indies captured 16 wickets for 418 runs, an average of 26.12. Hundreds stood outside the courts every day of his trial. The reports in the newspapers were read in homes and in barber shops and under community trees. Every day.
The verdict of guilt was greeted with groans. Sentence was that he should be taken from that place and in due course hanged by his neck until he was dead.
False hope
He lost his appeal and then the Governor was petitioned. There was hope. The Governor was fond of cricket. He was seen often at Sabina Park and Melbourne watching Test and Inter-colonial matches, and had seen Hylton bowl his heart out time after time. National sentiment was on Hylton's side. But Sir Hugh Foot was a man of the law. He did not give a reprieve. Hylton was hanged.
Sir Hugh did not believe that hanging this man would deter others from committing murder. The law, however, was the law, and so this popular cricketer paid the penalty prescribed.
Today, many Hyltons are on Death Row at the St. Catherine District Prison. They enjoy three meals a day. They enjoy free water and free electric lights. We pay these bills. Every time there is criminal upsurge we hear the assurances given in solemn tones:
"Hanging will be resumed!"
It is a recitation which will be repeated shortly. The human rights activists will then protest and demonstrate. We will hear them stating that nowhere in the world has hanging been a deterrent to murder. But is there anywhere else in the world where man-for-man there are as many murders committed as there are in Jamaica.
Bawl for my beloved country, Jamaica! Bawl!
