Leslie Miller
By NICO SCAVELLA
Tribune Staff Reporter
nscavella@tribunemedia.net
TALL Pines MP Leslie Miller yesterday called on the government to “fully implement the laws we have on the books” and hang convicted murderers.
Mr Miller said while some would disagree with “the execution of murderers”, something must be done to combat the “menace” of crime.
Mr Miller’s statements came after 58-year-old Theophilus Thompson was shot multiple times and killed while dropping his girlfriend home late Friday night to become the country’s 26th murder for the year.
A week earlier, 31-year-old Sean Neville, the son of renowned forensic psychologist Dr Mike Neville, was shot and killed near his home in the Culbert’s Hill area off Prince Charles Drive.
Referring to Mr Neville’s death in the House of Assembly yesterday, Mr Miller said: “Something has to take place in this country. The violence must stop. We need to fully implement the laws we have on the books. I know some in here don’t agree with the execution of murderers, but you know we like to emulate the United States of America to the ‘T’,” he said, before listing off death penalty statistics in the US.
The last time a convicted murderer was executed in The Bahamas was in January 2000, when David Mitchell was hanged.
“...You tell me, how are we going to combat this menace that is among us? How do we deal with it? When you kill a young man like Sean, these people don’t understand that you’re destroying three generations. You’re destroying the parent, you destroy the siblings, and you destroy the grandchildren.
“Something has to be done. We must rid our country of this menace that is among us. It has to be eradicated, by any means possible. It appears on the streets today Mr Speaker, that it’s either them or us. And if we don’t deal with them, Mr Speaker, just as the sun rises in the morning, they will deal with us.”
According to police reports, Mr Thompson was sitting in his car with his girlfriend in front of her home on Podoleo Street, when a group of four or five men armed with handguns opened fire on the home.
The suspects then fled on foot in an unknown direction.
Mr Thompson was shot multiple times in the chest, but his girlfriend was unharmed. However, a man and a woman who were standing a few feet away from the home were shot — the man in his thigh and the woman in her leg. They required hospital treatment.
Mr Thompson sped off in an attempt to drive to the hospital, but crashed a short while later on Montrose Avenue.
He was taken to hospital by ambulance, but died of his injuries around 1am on Saturday.
“None of us is immune to the violence that is on our streets,” Mr Miller said yesterday. “And a good example is what happened with the gentleman who was just giving the young woman a ride. A stray bullet hit him. It has to stop, Mr Speaker. We have an obligation to bring sanity back for our country. We have an obligation to protect and enhance the welfare – that’s the first tenet of the government – to protect its citizens. By any means necessary.
“I urge that we revisit this situation with all these useless deaths in our country and do what needs to be done to protect our people.”
On February 27, Mr Neville’s lifeless body was found lying near his home outside a grey, rental vehicle with several gunshot wounds in his upper body in Woodlawn Way when police arrived. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Officers also found a handgun with several live rounds of ammunition in his possession.
Mr Neville lived with his parents and his father, Dr Neville, told The Tribune he was at home writing on his computer when he heard the gunshots that claimed the life of his son.
The murder shocked area residents, among them St Anne’s MP Hubert Chipman, who said he was horrified by the report, adding that the number of break-ins and armed robberies in the Winton area had increased in recent months.
Comments
ObserverOfChaos 9 years, 2 months ago
First smart thing this man has said in months! Have to agree....hang'em all when they kill someone....crap with this prison sentence stuff...."you kill...you die"....
gangof4 9 years, 2 months ago
I certainly believe hanging is a deterrent in the Bahamas. I know a person who was in Fox Hill when they hung two fellas on the same day back in the 90's (I believe) and by the way he describes it, it had a profound effect on everyone up there - the prison guards, those in general population and those on death row. It scared a lot of those guys s**tless! There was a deathly silence throughout the entire prison for about 2 or 3 days.
That said, I still believe the overriding problem is the terrible conviction rate for murders/homicides in this country. When you're only convicting about 1 in 10 people for murder, the vast majority of murders go unpunished and if these guys perpetrating the crime know that they have a 9 out of 10 chance of walking, then why not do it. With these poor numbers, I'm sure there's probably a fair amount of "street vigilantism" going on as well, but until the government/judiciary sort out their piss-poor record, this will just get worse and worse.
duppyVAT 9 years, 2 months ago
Soooooooooo , how can the US states execute criminals and we cannot???????? Why cannot Amnesty stop the American executions????????? Why are we so weak?????????
We need the government to amend a simple clause making the Bahamas Court of Appeal the final appeallate court for criminal matters in The Bahamas. How hard is that??????????????
DreamerX 9 years, 2 months ago
Maybe nine (9) of the states have held executions in the US in last 9 years. Of the thirty-two (32) who still allow it in some form. The other eighteen (18) out right prohibit it by law. The USA's federal Government can actively support or not support it without it bearing on the states individual right to choose, meaning saying the US, is an error and shows ignorance on the topic.
The issue is that we are a Commonwealth, in that way, we are beholden to some degree of UK doctrine on matters like this as you can see if you research Commonwealth countries history with Death penalty. Amnesty has substantial influence in it's base country, so it follows.
While I hate murder, and I may, upon the tragedy near my own heart, change this opining moral stance, I cannot say logically or morally as a independent and unbiased person, it is right. We are reminded daily, by the swift death penalty cabal of unstable countries and I don't see how, aligning our countries penal code to savagery and calling upon our courts, recognized as inefficient and an sometimes ineffective to issue, with finality, the judgement of death. It is not the man who in broad daylight, who murders for his own desire and want, that is the point. It is the person, who is lower classed, who has a police record, who is being blamed, who may be innocent still, who has his country, his would be protectors, dismiss him eternally. I do not want for government to become invested in the easy method of cutting men down.
John 9 years, 2 months ago
Not only May there need for capital punishment but there needs to be some learning and relearning of our youth. They are bombarded with music and movies and social media that teach and promote negative and violent behavior, murder included. Because of the shortage of lethal injection drugs, one state has applied for permission to use shooting squads to carry out their executions
TalRussell 9 years, 2 months ago
Comrades your guess is is good as anyone's - how much to contract the nation's first firing squad. Will be some extra costs to build, if it is made to conform to the more popularly used western-style firing squad.
by TalRussell
bahamama 9 years, 2 months ago
Hanging and firing squads? That's the answer to crime? All of these criminals were children once. I think we need to take a "prevention is better than cure" approach to crime. Improve education. Not just academics such as maths and english, but sex ed and conflict resolution. I know this is an extremely hard thing to do, as a lot of these criminals come from broken homes, but we need to try. It seems that the only time people get in an uproar is when a person murders someone else. Why aren't we more proactive in ensuring that children get the help, love and support they need?
Don't get me wrong, I know there are a lot of young parents out there that don't know any better than to either dump their children on the grandparents or beat them to within an inch of their life when they do the most trivial things. This is by no means an easy problem to fix. But I think that adult Bahamians need to come together and discuss plausible actions to take with our children. Teachers, psychologists, etc. All persons with knowledge of family dynamics should band together to try tackle this problem.
And don't forget, there have been cases in the States where people were put to death and years later were proven without a shadow of a doubt to be innocent. With the corruption of the government and police force, I wouldn't trust either to condemn anyone to death.
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