Andrew Clunis, Staff Reporter
Bruce Golding will find ways to appeal to the Privy Council for the resumption of capital punishment. - IAN ALLEN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
MANCHESTER, England:
JAMAICA LABOUR Party (JLP) Leader, Bruce Golding, has said that a JLP government would find new ways to appeal to the Privy Council for a resumption of hanging in Jamaica.
He proposed a measure which would still recognise the Pratt and Morgan ruling of 1993 but would also ensure that prisoners on death row be sent before the gallows.
PRATT/MORGAN RULING
Named for convicts Earl Pratt and Ivan Morgan, the Pratt/Morgan ruling by the Privy Council states that prisoners sentenced to death should have their terms commuted to life imprisonment once they are on death row for five years and more.
Mr. Golding told an audience in Manchester, England, on Wednesday night that there was an urgent need for the resumption of capital punishment in Jamaica in order to deter would-be killers.
"The JLP government hung 62 people in the 1980s and we were the last government to hang anybody in Jamaica and that was in 1988," said Mr. Golding. "When we get back to power we will resume hanging because the law says that the punishment for capital murder is death. As long as it is on the books, we will carry it through."
According to Mr. Golding, a JLP administration would see to it that death warrants were issued 'as soon as possible' after the sentence was passed.
"That way, we start the process early so that by the time the appeal process is exhausted, we would still be within the five-year time frame given by the Privy Council within which the execution must take place," he explained. "I get the feeling that the people who have the responsibility to issue death warrants are not comfortable with the death penalty. But if the decision is not to hang people, then the law should be taken off the books."
Mr. Golding said executions would only take place after every accused person had had adequate representation and a fair trial.
The JLP leader and his National Security Spokesman, Derrick Smith, are in the United Kingdom for a series of meetings.
Mr. Golding is on the first leg of a three-part tour to address the issue of crime, which he referred to as a "demonic plague" on Jamaica. He outlined measures a JLP government would take to strengthen the police force, eradicate corruption from within its ranks and reduce violent crimes.
He promised that a JLP government would create more prison space by releasing persons serving custodial sentences for non-violent offences such as marijuana possession.
"There are many people who should be paying their debt to society through community service while we work at locking away the monsters. We need the prison space and the JLP would be committed to building another prison," Golding said.
