THE EDITOR, Sir:
IT IS common knowledge that most Jamaicans are in favour of capital punishment, so much so that the present government thought it would have improved their chances of winning the last general elections if they promised to bring back hanging if they were given a fourth term in office. Now that they have been returned to power, no hanging has taken place, and I dare say that the death penalty is history in Jamaica.
The present government is not solely responsible for this. If the Jamaica Labour Party were to be injected with some cohesive fluid that would remove
the scales from the eyes of the members of that fractious, contentious bunch, and by some divine intervention, they are able to change their self-destructive ways and end up forming the next government, they would not be able to bring back the death penalty, even if they wanted to.
According to RADICAL FAX #1444 (a bulletin by the Transitional Radical Party) in a report presented at the U.N. headquarters in New York by Hands Off Cain on December 3, 2004, out of 191 U.N. member states 131 have decided to abolish the death penalty. This information was given within the context of the re-launch of the campaign for a worldwide moratorium on executions. In addition to this, I visited the Hands off Cain website, and there Jamaica is listed among the de facto abolitionist states by virtue of the fact that the state has not executed anyone over the last ten years.
Jamaicans and other nationals who are for the death penalty have only been talking, while those who are against the death penalty, have been busy uniting and fighting against it.
Jamaicans had better accept the fact that there will be no resumption of hanging.
I am,etc.,
WINNIE ANDERSON- BROWN
winab@cwjamaica.com
Bagatelle District
Ashley P.A.
Clarendon
