Jamaica to resume hanging

[evanovitch]

The Jamaica announcement comes as the UN is about to debate a resolution to ban hanging globally

The Jamaica government says it's fast tracking arrangements in preparation for the resumption of hanging.
The country has not carried out the death penalty since the late 70's.

Its attempts to execute convicted killers have been blocked by several judicial rulings including from the Privy Council in London.

But now Minister of National Security, Derrick Smith has announced he has requested a list of persons currently on death row, that list to be compiled by the Ministry of Justice.

The Security Minister says this will help the authorities to determine whether all condemned persons have exhausted the appeals process.

"I have sought to get this information on the number of people on death row, to check on those who have not started their appeals, so that they can begin that process."

Mr. Smith said the Government is intent on resuming hanging:

"Hopefully, we'll get all the appeals completed within the five year period (stipulated by law) so we can resume hanging."

The Jamaica announcement comes as a resolution goes before the the United Nations General Assembly calling for a worldwide suspension of the use of the death penalty.

A vote is expected next week.

It was not known if there were any links between the timing of the two issues.

The UN resolution, which is not legally binding, has the backing of eighty-one countries.

Human rights groups are warning that Singapore, one of the countries that opposes the initiative, may try to introduce changes to the resolution which would render it ineffective.

If adopted the resolution against the death penalty will be a significant statement of changing international opinion.

A-hundred-and-thirty countries have already banned the death penalty.

Only twenty-five nations carried out executions last year.

[Tuff Gong]

Re: Jamaica to resume hanging


Don't send to tell me for whom the bell tolls
It tolls for you

[Tuff Gong]

Re: Jamaica to resume hanging

Opposition asking for government’s stand on hanging

Friday, 09 November 2007

Former Justice Minister Senator A.J. Nicolson wants Government to state clearly if its position on hanging will depend on a proposed conscience vote to be held in Parliament.

After hanging in the balance for nearly 20 years, the Government has indicated that it plans to take the explosive issue of capital punishment back to both Houses of Parliament.

The People's National Party administration of the 1980s took a similar course in 1978, but has since been hamstrung in its efforts to resume hanging.

This is because of a five year limitation period enforced by Judicial Review Committee of the London Privy Council, to have all legal processes completed.

Soon after the Jamaica Labour Party administration assumed state power, State Minister in the National Security Ministry Senator Arthur Williams said the Government was prepared to facilitate another conscience vote in Parliament.

On Friday, Senator Nicholson questioned whether this would be an academic exercise.

Senator Nicholson asked Justice Minister Dorothy Lightbourne for the time frame within which the Government intended to fulfill its promise of the conscience Vote and the objective of the exercise.

He also asked Senator Lightbourne to outline the Government's plans to circumvent the five year limit being imposed by Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, if Parliament is in favour of retaining the death penalty.

Additionally, he called on the Justice Minister to state the Government's position on the route taken by the Barbados Parliament to remove the five year stricture.

Senator Nicholson also asked that Senator Lightbourne divulge the thinking of the present administration concerning the five year limitation in comparison to a seven year plan, which constitutes an infringement under the European Convention.

He also wants Senator Lightbourne to outline the path to be pursued by the Government if the Parliament votes in favour of abolishing the death penalty.

http://www.radiojamaica.com/content/view/2868/26/

[Dyoll_73]

Re: Jamaica to resume hanging

So while capital punishment is increasingly viewed as an anachronism in many parts of the world, including most first-world countries, Jamaica is making a backward move. When the PNP was in power, I always thought that they were pushing to resume the death penalty to convey the impression that they were getting tough on crime, and to distract from their inability to deal with the socio-economic conditions that often lead to high crime rates. Now I see the JLP politicians, certainly Derick Smith and Dorothy Lightbourne, are capitalizing on the sentiments on a fed-up public who find the level of violence intolerable, and who is in no mood to listen to arguments as to why capital punishment should be abolished, for legal (constitutional), moral and practical reasons. Like the PNP, they are projecting an image of toughness and hoping the public will buy it. The more reasonable heads in the JLP should let Bruce know that the real war on crime should be fought on the social, economic and moral fronts.

This is a departure from the JLP position, up to about three years ago, as far as I can remember. I note that Ossie Harding, who served as Attorney General in the last JLP government, and later as the JLP spokesman on justice, and Delroy Chuck, the party's spokesman on justice during the last ten years when it was in opposition, are both staunch opponents of capital punishment. I see that both were passed over for the position of Attorney General. (I'm not neccesarily drawing any conclusions here.)

[Tuff Gong]

Re: Jamaica to resume hanging

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Dyoll_73</div><div class="ubbcode-body">So while capital punishment is increasingly viewed as an anachronism in many parts of the world, including most first-world countries, Jamaica is making a backward move. When the PNP was in power, I always thought that they were pushing to resume the death penalty to convey the impression that they were getting tough on crime, and to distract from their inability to deal with the socio-economic conditions that often lead to high crime rates. Now I see the JLP politicians, certainly Derick Smith and Dorothy Lightbourne, are capitalizing on the sentiments on a fed-up public who find the level of violence intolerable, and who is in no mood to listen to arguments as to why capital punishment should be abolished, for legal (constitutional), moral and practical reasons. Like the PNP, they are projecting an image of toughness and hoping the public will buy it. The more reasonable heads in the JLP should let Bruce know that the real war on crime should be fought on the social, economic and moral fronts.

This is a departure from the JLP position, up to about three years ago, as far as I can remember. I note that Ossie Harding, who served as Attorney General in the last JLP government, and later as the JLP spokesman on justice, and Delroy Chuck, the party's spokesman on justice during the last ten years when it was in opposition, are both staunch opponents of capital punishment. I see that both were passed over for the position of Attorney General. (I'm not neccesarily drawing any conclusions here.) </div></div>

On the matter of the Death Penalty, the JLP Leadership like the PNP split in two camps. The JLP unlike the PNP had more persons, favouring Death Penalty, with inept Leaders such as D. Smith firmly in the Hang Dem high Posse.
I would be surprised in Ms. Lightbourne is in that bloody camp, but I know D. Chuck and Ossie Harding was not. Why do you think D. Chuck was not given either the Ministry of National Security or the Justice Portfolio?
You can see that Bruce allowed outsiders to put enough pressure on him to promote incompetents such as D. Smith to a level that he cannot manage. Now he is behaving like a warmed over Peter Phillips and K.D. Knight all rolled into one.

Not to worry my friend the Justice Shytsm is so moribund that they will only succeed in hanging two unfortunates before the whole thing grinds to a halt.
One of those might be even some miscreant who was SetUp and could not find the wherewithal to prove his innocence. Sorry for him!
Of course this will have absolutely no effect on reducing crime but it might enhance the reputation of D. Smith and Hangman.

The PNP, cowards as they are, cannot wait for the hanging machine to be cranked up, preferably by a JLP Government. The last time the JLP hanged some convicts, one of whom was a Cop. The PNP used it against them in subsequent elections and just as soon a Paterson came to power, he (who had voted against hanging in the 78 so-called conscience vote) pushed through legislation to categorized murder, so that if a policeman killed one person and was convicted of murder they would not face the hangman.
I don't thing the JLP is learning from history.

[lonewolf]

Re: Jamaica to resume hanging

Let's see if I have this one right....Jamaica isn't going to just hang a noose, they are going to actually put black people in the noose and hang them.
Where is the outrage from Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton? Where are the plane loads of protesters from the US to Jamaica like in Jena?
This would never swing in the US....(whoops)...bad choice of words.

[Dr.Dudd]

Re: Jamaica to resume hanging

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: lonrwolf</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Let's see if I have this one right....Jamaica isn't going to just hang a noose, they are going to actually put black people in the noose and hang them.
Where is the outrage from Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton? Where are the plane loads of protesters from the US to Jamaica like in Jena?
This would never swing in the US....(whoops)...bad choice of words. </div></div>
You don't seem to know the difference between the rule of law and criminal acts, when it is convenient.
Not that I agree with hanging, I oppose death as a means of handing down justice.

[Wahalla]

Re: Jamaica to resume hanging

While interlectually I am against hanging, in Jamaica there is popular sentiment for its resumption... If I was a poltician I would support it.. I am amoral... Given the popular acclaim to bun batty man.. why should the state not do the same... This however is the just the state formalise what ancedotally is already happening....

[Dyoll_73]

Re: Jamaica to resume hanging

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">...the Justice Shytsm is so moribund that they will only succeed in hanging two unfortunates before the whole thing grinds to a halt.
One of those might be even some miscreant who was SetUp and could not find the wherewithal to prove his innocence. Sorry for him!
Of course this will have absolutely no effect on reducing crime but it might enhance the reputation of D. Smith and Hangman.
</div></div>

I agree. This push for death is not about justice. The real motivation here, it seems to me, is projecting a tough-guy image. And Derick Smith is no tough-guy. We all know who will mostly get the death sentence and who won't.

With the Pratt/Morgan case, the UK privy council had signalled that the imposition of the death penalty was cruel and unusual with respect to those two defendants, and for years following that ruling, had presented an impediment to hanging in Jamaica and the other former colonies that had that body as their final appellate court. The PNP wanted to circumvent that process by pursuing the establishment of the Caribbean Court of Appeals, except the reason they gave was "sovereignty" and "the creation of a Caribbean jurisprudence."

[Tuff Gong]

Re: Jamaica to resume hanging



<span style='font-size: 14pt'>Can we hang convicts under such a in-justice shystm</span>?

'Ghost witnesses'

Sunday, November 11, 2007

There are growing fears in judicial circles that some Jamaican cops are using statements from non-existent or 'ghost witnesses' to detain accused persons indefinitely, with some being convicted and jailed.

The practice has forced many lawyers to stage their own search for these alleged witnesses, in order to test suspect statements 'tendered' to police officers, often from non-existent addresses.

"It is a major issue, and has become so since the Amendment to the Evidence Act, because, now statements can be admitted into evidence where the witness cannot be found," complained George Soutar, president of the Advocates Association of Jamaica.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/html/20071110T180000-0500_129258_OBS__GHOST_WITNESSES_.asp

[Wardob]

Re: Jamaica to resume hanging

Cant disagree with you about Derrick at all, anyhow I don’t think D.Chuck opposition to the death penalty was the reason for him not been the Minister.
I think you are correcy in saying the party is split right down the middle, for and against.How they vote however may be different from their personal feelings.

“Are capitalizing on the sentiments on a fed-up public who find the level of violence intolerable, and who is in no mood to listen to arguments as to why capital punishment should be abolished” … Dyoll

I don’t think they are capitalizing on the punlic mood Dyoll, but certainly they (MPs) are concern that the public is in no mood to listen (as U stated) and certainly not to any MP if they should go for abolishment.
As a recent convert (yes Tuff I know I change course) for abolishment, and one who had the gruesome task to accompany a MP on a meeting to discuss the matter, (he is for abolishment) I will juts say… leaving out the 10 shilling words, use to describe us, we had a hasty retreat. Therefore I can understand the struggle they face, hence the round table discussion and the expected conscience vote after.

I hope the PM will address the matter in his National Broadcast tonight

[Tuff Gong]

Re: Jamaica to resume hanging

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Wardob</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Cant disagree with you about Derrick at all, anyhow I don’t think D.Chuck opposition to the death penalty was the reason for him not been the Minister.
I think you are correcy in saying the party is split right down the middle, for and against.How they vote however may be different from their personal feelings.

“Are capitalizing on the sentiments on a fed-up public who find the level of violence intolerable, and who is in no mood to listen to arguments as to why capital punishment should be abolished” … Dyoll

I don’t think they are capitalizing on the punlic mood Dyoll, but certainly they (MPs) are concern that the public is in no mood to listen (as U stated) and certainly not to any MP if they should go for abolishment.
As a recent convert (yes Tuff I know I change course) for abolishment, and one who had the gruesome task to accompany a MP on a meeting to discuss the matter, (he is for abolishment) I will juts say… leaving out the 10 shilling words, use to describe us, we had a hasty retreat. Therefore I can understand the struggle they face, hence the round table discussion and the expected conscience vote after.

I hope the PM will address the matter in his National Broadcast tonight
</div></div>

D. Chuck I must say have said over and over (I also take this position), sure I am staunchly against Capital Punishment, but the Government of Jamaica cannot enforce one law and ignore the other. Since Capital Punishment is on the books let the Law tek its Course.

Apparently this is not good enough for the blood thirsty Posse, because it has kept a very capable man out of the Justice Ministry and the National Security Ministry.
Apart from his opposition (no pun) to hanging is the line he has taken towards Agents of the State and their constant use of deadly force against the Citizens of Jamaica.

Long before the last Ballots were cast, and Bruce was crowned, the JLP sent Jamaica a signal that it was satisfied with 1000+ Murders, rampant Crime and 200+ police killings. A signal that only I seemed to have picked up and commented about at the time.
The JLP made only one video (that I know of), about rising crime. When it was time to debate the Ministry of National Security, inexpiably they sent DR. Baugh (who was then shadowing, Health and the Public Sector), rather than the person Shadowing the Ministry of National Security, one Derrick Smith, who laughably went on to become The Minister Of National In-Security, picking up where the failures K.D. Knight and Peter Philips left off. Little wonder that Dr. Baugh did so badly against Fake Dr. Peter Phillips.

After the Elections they compounded the debacle by taking Col. Macmillan and D. Chuck as far away from the Police and day-to-day crime as possible. As an aside same thing with Health? It leads me to ask this question. Who is pulling Bruce's Strings?
Someone or Some ones do not want Crime, Health and Justice fixed in Jamaica.

[evanovitch]

Re: Jamaica to resume hanging

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: lonrwolf</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Let's see if I have this one right....Jamaica isn't going to just hang a noose, they are going to actually put black people in the noose and hang them.
Where is the outrage from Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton? Where are the plane loads of protesters from the US to Jamaica like in Jena?
This would never swing in the US....(whoops)...bad choice of words. </div></div>

how it go again,betta to be thought a fool dan fi open u mout n remove all doubt...u lik u head mek u come een yah wid dat deh fawt dont...cho...is betta u did juss read an resist di urge fi try a ting... [img]/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/rolleyes.gif[/img]

[Tuff Gong]

Re: Jamaica to resume hanging

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: evanovitch</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: lonrwolf</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Let's see if I have this one right....Jamaica isn't going to just hang a noose, they are going to actually put black people in the noose and hang them.
Where is the outrage from Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton? Where are the plane loads of protesters from the US to Jamaica like in Jena?
This would never swing in the US....(whoops)...bad choice of words. </div></div>

how it go again,betta to be thought a fool dan fi open u mout n remove all doubt...u lik u head mek u come een yah wid dat deh fawt dont...cho...is betta u did juss read an resist di urge fi try a ting... [img]/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/rolleyes.gif[/img] </div></div>

LOL!