The Death Penalty...Do We Need It?

Lately, much has been said about the resumption of hanging in Barbados. I have heard a lot of emotionally charged calls for the authorities to hang those convicted of murder. My question is this.

"What are we trying to achieve with the death penalty?"
Let me share with you the case of Stanley "Tookie" Williams to illustrate the moral complexities of the death penalty question. Mr. Williams, an author and Nobel Peace and Literature Prizes nominee was put to death on December 13, 2005 by lethal injection by the state of California. Mr. Williams was convicted of four murders committed in 1979, and sentenced to death. Williams professed innocence of these crimes. He was also co-founder of the Crips, a deadly and powerful Los Angeles-based street gang responsible for hundreds of murders. About five years after incarceration, Mr. Williams underwent a religious conversion and, as a result, authored many books and programs to promote peace and to fight gangs and gang violence. He was nominated five times for the Nobel Peace Prize and four times for the Nobel Literature Prize.
Mr. Williams' was a self-admitted life of crime and violence, followed by genuine redemption and a life of uniquely and unusually good works. The circumstantial evidence against Williams left little doubt that he committed the four murders, despite last-minute claims by supporters. There also existed no doubt that Mr. Williams posed no further threat to society, and would contribute considerable good.

The case of Stanley "Tookie" Williams should force all clear thinking people to reflect on the purpose of the death penalty:

•Is the purpose of the death penalty to remove from society someone who would cause more harm?
•Is the purpose to remove from society someone who is incapable of rehabilitation?
•Is the purpose of the death penalty to deter others from committing murder?
•Is the purpose of the death penalty to punish the criminal?
•Is the purpose of the death penalty to take retribution on behalf of the victim?

Space would not allow me to examine all of these questions in detail so I will leave it to you, the reader to draw your own conclusions. I will answer all comments and I will revisit these issues in subsequent writings.

However, let us look at the argument, that capital punishment is, in fact, a deterrent to crime.  Today, Commissioner of Police, Darwin Dottin stated that the majority of murders committed in Barbados this year were crimes resulting from personal disputes. These are crimes executed in the heat of passion where the perpetrator reacts in an highly excited emotional state. Do you think that the killer paused to think of the consequences of his actions before acting?

Even now proponents of capital punishment, have stopped using it as an argument because the idea of the deterrence of crime and capital punishment, cannot be proven with any statistical or logical surety. How do you deter someone from committing a crime they committed?

The second plank for the deterrence argument, sets out to suggest that folks who may commit capital crimes, would be deterred by visible and swift hangings. Fact is, this is not the case at all. Statistics from every capital punishment jurisdiction to non capital punishment jurisdiction, do not find any correlation with lower capital offences than it is with higher capital offences. In fact, there is no evidence to suggest anything to do with "punishment" and "crime" at all. The death penalty is not employed in England but crime is relatively lower per-capita than any other country. Why is that? Same can be said of France.

I have as yet not been able to find any credible relationship between murder and capital punishment, to suggest it as a deterrent, on any level, for any reason--long term or short term.

The fact is the majority of Barbadians wants capital punishment to be used as a form of retribution and revenge on the murderous thug who killed that innocent victim. I would like some upstanding, law-abiding citizen to stand up and shout on behalf of all those christian minded, love one another, turn the other cheek sprouting Bajans, "we want to kill (but don't have the guts to do it )the person who killed somebody else. It would make us feel better, (not safer), to know that some punk, got killed because he killed someone else."

As I listened to The Commissioner's report on crime in Barbados, I kept waiting to hear if he would state the reasons for the escalating crime situation. He alluded to the Cash for Gold syndrome and the Fete Culture as contributing factors but was too politically correct to state the obvious... THE ECONOMY!

Crime and its linkages to the economy, is patently obvious yet our leaders keep trying to avoid facing up to it. Firstly, we must start to admit that  a lot of issues, especially in regards to providing a safe, regulated and transparent economy, is out of our hands, or, above our heads and spheres of interest. It would be better to say it and then attempt to engage us, the people, into a discussion on how to move forward with providing equity for all in the country. And we have to do something about it or it will get worse. Yes we can have punishment, but the murder of an innocent is a murder of an innocent. No amount of punishment can bring them back. If the people who are predisposed to crime in general can't eat, or, live to their fullest potential in an orderly society, "their" society, they will be forced to live to their potential outside of that orderly society. End of Story! If you don't include, you exclude. It just so happens that the exclusion, is fatal--in many regards.

As always, I am about solutions. What can we do in Barbados to safeguard our economies and ultimately control the escalating crime situation? Sorry, I don't have the answer. If I did, I would be delivering the Financial Statements and Budgetary Proposals later today instead of the Minister of Finance.  However, the answer, is not found in a text book from Harvard nor is it found in a mandate from the IMF and World Bank. It is found, rather, in the heart of a leader and with a love for Barbados and it's people who is willing to put frameworks and safegards around the sectors of economic activity within this country, to be honest and transparent so that people can feel included in their economic process. Then and only then will we see the levels of crime return to "normal" levels in Barbados.

So people forget the revenge mentality. We are better than that.

Quote of the Day

"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."  Mahatma Gandhi