Dr Hubert Minnis
By SANCHESKA BROWN
Tribune Staff Reporter
sbrown@tribunemedia.net
OPPOSITION Leader Dr Hubert Minnis said yesterday if he is elected prime minister, he would hold a referendum on capital punishment “as soon as possible”.
In an interview with The Tribune, Dr Minnis said he would immediately seek to amend the Constitution to remove the UK-based Privy Council as the highest court of appeal for murder convicts.
Dr Minnis said in the case of murder convictions, if the trial judge feels the nature and circumstances of the killing merit the imposition of a death sentence and the Court of Appeal agrees, the sentence should not be appealed to any other court anywhere else in the world.
On Tuesday in the House of Assembly, Dr Minnis said that the necks of “murderous scumbags” in the country must be “popped” as he castigated the Christie administration for failing “miserably” in its obligation to keep Bahamians safe.
He said until festering crime levels in the Bahamas could be controlled, the economy would fail to grow.
“I will do everything in my power to ensure that we start hanging these murderers,” Dr Minnis said when contacted on Thursday.
“I want to amend the Constitution so murder cases will only go as far as the Court of Appeal right here and would no longer go to the Privy Council. I will do everything to carry out the law and the law says hang so that is what I will do. “This issue will be discussed and debated in the House of Assembly and then taken to the people. We will have this referendum because I am a strong advocate and believer of hanging. The crime has to stop and this is just one way we will attempt to stop it.”
The London-based Privy Council, the country’s highest court, has been portrayed as an obstacle to the Bahamas carrying out the death penalty after declaring in 2006 that the country’s mandatory death penalty upon a murder conviction was unconstitutional.
Five years later, in June 2011, the high court overturned Maxo Tido’s death sentence in connection with the killing 16-year-old Donnell Connover, whose body was found off Cowpen Road, battered and bruised, her skull crushed. There was additional evidence that parts of her body were burned after her death.
But the Privy Council concluded that the murder was not an example of the “worst of the worst.”
In November 2011, Parliament passed legislation to define the types of murder constituting the “worst of the worst” guidelines set out by the high court.
The last execution of a convicted murderer was the hanging of David Mitchell in 2000 under the former FNM administration.
Comments
ohdrap4 8 years, 4 months ago
someone please buy this man a compass, a radio, a subscription to the daily newspapers and membership to social media sites.
referendum is a fighting word, dude.
Save your breath for your convention.
you really miss evry opportunity to strike the plp's achille's heel.
Publius 8 years, 4 months ago
This man is positively revolting.
Zakary 8 years, 4 months ago
No more referendums. Not necessary.
arussell 8 years, 4 months ago
Minnis of recently you seem to be desperate!
licks2 8 years, 4 months ago
True. . .what you expect when every turn ya make people in ya own house "wapping" ya with sticks!! Lol! He pees. . ."he peeing wrong. . .no leader pees like that". . .all the correspondence ends up in the press. . .all meeting information leaks to the press. . .dang!
TalRussell 8 years, 4 months ago
Comrade Minnis, por qué no te callas about referendum?
Economist 8 years, 4 months ago
Only murder cases? This should be interesting!
TalRussell 8 years, 4 months ago
Comrade Economist, considering the past three referendums went through their deep periods of outright "lying" by both the "YES" and "NO" sides, it's not exactly a pretty prospect if we as a people are wanting to turn into a citizens' lottery, whether or not to be sending the 'found guilty' to meet with the hangman's neck snapping noose?
A deadly neck snapper of which there IS NO REPLAY of hidden, poor, mistaken or deliberate presentation/misrepresentation, or misjudgment of the case facts/evidence?
Good God my Comrade Economist, there are even excellent arguments to doing away with trial by jury?
Now, you wish turn the entire registered voters list into a massive collective body of a jury? Do you really think you can find 180,000 of your peers, to decide if you live or have your damn neck snapped?
Economist 8 years, 4 months ago
I was joking. The idea of another Referendum is a frightening prospect. But how you separate murder cases out from everything else is beyond me.
So he would still have the Privy Council doing everything else.....strange.
licks2 8 years, 4 months ago
Ah well. . .talrussell if it een for you around here. . .these sad sacks will cause me puke!!! Tell something. . .is it just me or these persons will row Doc for going to the toilet twice per day. . ."THEY GETTING OLE". . . ya can't talk sense with them. . .they stuck on Minnis. . . Lol!
John 8 years, 4 months ago
Donald Trump is blaming Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton for causing the Brits to vote in favor (should I say favour) of leaving the EU and leading to the resignation of the British PM. According to Trump, Obama, a friend of the PM, encouraged the British to vote in favor is staying in the union and Hillary Clinton did the same thing in a recent address. Trump who was visiting the UK said he could not tell the British how to vote. He left it up to them. Unlike our own referendum, where the government sponsored the 'yes' campaign and the PM was personally involved to the point of visiting polling stations. This caused a resounding defeat of all four bills. Not only does the PM not resign, but members of government are making personal attacks on private citizens who were NOT in favor of the bills. So what ever happened to freedom of choice at the polls and otherwise?
avidreader 8 years, 4 months ago
Be careful what you say about capital punishment. Very few people are aware of great miscarriages of justice such as the Timothy Evans case in the UK in the early 1950s when Evans was hanged for a crime actually committed by John Christie who was discovered to be a serial killer a few years after Evans was hanged. Emotional people are unaware of how many innocent people are convicted of crimes committed by some other person. Few things can be worse than standing on the gallows with the noose around your neck all the while knowing that you are innocent of the crime for which you are about to be punished. Over the years miscarriages of justice of this type persuaded many countries to abolish the death penalty.
sheeprunner12 8 years, 4 months ago
A capital punishment referendum is as necessary as the recent 3 citizenship questions on the June 7 referendum .......... we need to extricate ourselves from the Privy Council when it comes to criminal matters
licks2 8 years, 4 months ago
Opppss. . .so LBBT was out to lunch with telling us to vote yes for those 3 bills. . .and now Doc koko for telling us he will have one referendum on murder? So the FNM don't have no leader with good sense aye? Lol!
sheeprunner12 8 years, 4 months ago
Licks ........ they are politicians with their own agendas ..... the Constitution speaks for itself .......... read it for yourself
licks2 8 years, 4 months ago
I have done so over and over (cover to cover). . .never stopped. . .own my personal copy. . .very few in this nation knows that document more than I do chile. . . I know it better than all of them in the house. . .put together. . .
killemwitdakno 8 years, 4 months ago
Unless he mentioned having multiple issues in one referendum and firstly how to improve the referendum, he's again shown he's a poor pick for leader.
No worst of the worst defined, no hanging for bloodthirsty people pleasing Daverage jury Bahamians.
Voting on whether to end lives or live with killers is drastic bordering on voting morals and virtues and putting others wellbeing in the hand of the untrustworthy masses.
Admit our failures. We don't have our own worst of the worst which is why only one killer is on death row.
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