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Saturday, January 26, 2008

Jamaica's Issue with Capital Punishment

Many Jamaicans have been staunch supporters of Capital punishment. This has said to contribute to Jamaica's image from a human rights aspect. Jamaica is among a handful of countries where the death penalty is still on the books.

The resumption of hanging is an extremely divisive issue in Jamaica. Opinion polls show most Jamaicans back a return to hanging. With the escalation of crime this was viewed as a serious deterrent.
The very last hanging in Jamaica took place in 1988, when the Jamaica Laobr Party formed the government. The party returned to power in September. Since then there have been hints to returning to the old way of handling the upsurge of crime.

I don't know how I feel about this process. There were many people who suffered from this type of corporal punishment and unjustly so. Once you are hung, and you die, really no way to say "sorry" if a wrong decision was made.

Source Jamaica Gleaner


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Isn't the death penalty/capital punishment a form of revenge as opposed to real deterrent ?

iriegal said...

I agree esteban. Sadly it can be a used a a revenge tool. The problems with use of "hanging" is it is not as
glamorized, like we see in the Cowboy movies. You know where someone jumps on their horse and cuts the rope.

Hanging was a very real and brutal form of death in Jamaica. There were times that people were even decapitated in the process.

I think the administration is so frustrated with the crime level and the system that they are looking into all means of finding a solutions. With hanging implemented, less crime will indeed happen. People did fear this act in the past

Anonymous said...

i do not think putting capital punishment in place will deterate the level of crime in jamaica. i think that friends, families and the environment influence people to commit crime. jamaica needs to have stronger law force with less bad cop, politicians etc.