The Tribune

LAST WEEK, Archbishop Patrick Pinder urged the government to abolish the death penalty. Instead, in a pastoral letter from the Bishops of the Antilles Episcopal Conference, it was recommended that government should concentrate on the rehabilitation of the offender.

It said that while a “climate of lawlessness” is prevalent in The Bahamas and the region, capital punishment does not “assist the criminal to reform,” nor does it “assist the victim to restore his or her violated dignity”.

Five days later, Bishop Walter Hanchell, chairman of the Citizens for Justice, begged to disagree. He announced that he remained a firm supporter of “restorative justice” for all those convicted of crimes, but not for murderers. In his opinion murderers should “suffer the penalty of death for their crimes as prescribed by law”. In other words Bishop Hanchell belongs to the school of “hang ’em high!”

On the other hand, Archbishop Pinder and the Bishops of the Antilles Episcopal Conference believe that to take away a person’s “basic right to immunity from fatal harm” is to “compromise his/her sacred dignity”.

As for Bishop Hanchell, he believes that capital punishment is an act, not conceived by Man, but by God. Scripture, he said, decreed that murderers should be “punished and removed” from society. However, he quoted no Scripture that said that they should be killed.

And then there is psychologist Dr David Allen with a plan to save youth from the anger that triggers violence, thus setting them on the right path before they stumble and have to be rehabilitated. (See story page 3).

We have often been asked what side we are on. Having grown up in the midst of two brothers with strong opinions on the matter we wavered for a long time, until experience convinced us that hanging was not a deterrent.

However, Sir Etienne Dupuch believed it was a deterrent, although towards the end he had started to have doubts. His “baby brother”, the Hon Eugene Dupuch, QC, had no doubts. He was firmly against capital punishment. This was the only subject on which the two brothers disagreed.

Sir Etienne believed it was a deterrent because he recalled his father talking of the public hangings on the Eastern Parade. On February 2, 1856, the Bahamas Herald reported the hanging of Daphe Neilly on the Eastern Parade. As crowds gathered an open coffin was put in front of the prisoner at the foot of the scaffold. Neilly was positioned beneath the drop “and in a few moments afterwards she was in eternity.” After being “suspended for nearly half an hour,” the report continued, “the body was removed to a neighbouring burial ground and there interred”.

Such a gruesome public scene would certainly have been a deterrent. However, statistics today show that the death penalty is no longer a STOP sign to murder. In the US, states that do not have the death penalty show that murder is consistently lower than in states with the death penalty.

Said Police Chief James Abbott of West Orange, New Jersey, in 2010: “I ... know that in practice, (the death penalty) does more harm than good. So while I hang on to my theoretical views, as I’m sure many of you will, I stand before you to say that society is better off without capital punishment… Life in prison without parole in a maximum-security detention facility is a better alternative.”

Although still on the statute books, no one has been hanged in the Bahamas since January 6, 2000. We believe that it should be officially abolished.

Too many mistakes are still being made and too many innocent persons in other jurisdictions are still being executed — despite DNA testing – to justify its retention.

However, even in this — although we believe that a convicted murderer should be jailed for life with life meaning a man’s full lifetime, not 25 years—even these rules should not be so hard and fast that during the course of an offender’s lifetime, there cannot be a reprieve.

Not too long ago, we received a letter from a young Bahamian who is serving a life sentence in a US prison for participating in an argument with a group of boys that ended in murder. We know the family. A fine Bahamian family deeply anchored in their religious faith. But we shall let the young man tell his own story.

“I grew up,” he writes, “in an environment that was full of love, devotion to faith and was taught how to care, share and respect others. I can remember my high school days where I would do the announcements in the mornings in the dean’s office and then turn around and plan events for the school with some of my other peer councillors, a prefect, on the Key Club and participated in the Kiwanis Club meetings, along with the school’s basketball and softball teams that I played for.

“During the summer months, I worked doing air-conditioning and refrigeration until I finished high school. Upon completing high school I earned a partial scholarship from the Lyford Cay Scholarship Foundation to attend––––––––. It was during this time that I got into trouble with the law for the decision to hang with the wrong crowd and that decision cost me my freedom.”

The young man admits his mistakes, but he is not bitter. He has a positive attitude and is preparing himself for the day that he can come home and help others to avoid his errors.

The prison to which he has been assigned has many positive programmes to prepare inmates for the world outside. He has taken advantage of everyone of them so that he can return home equipped to help young Bahamians stay out of trouble, and show them the consequences of a wrong decision. In prison he tutors other prisoners to prepare them for their tests. He has taken anger management courses, a psychological course that deals with criminal thinking, a course for ways in which to keep a family together, and a course to help a man be a better father for his children.

“In between helping these guys, I find time to exercise and work out, write and read. But none of these things would have been possible if not for God’s grace and my positive attitude. That is all that it takes. It’s not easy dealing and coping with what I go through — but I know deep down inside me that I’m going to come home and some day have an impact in my country.

“This institution has a Gavel Club and I’m in the process of trying to enrol and become a member. I do these things in order to be of service and to be able to give back and to lead by example.”

This is a young man who is needed in this country. However, his one unfortunate decision has banished him from society for life — unless a way can be found to have him released.

This is one of the many reasons that we are against the gallows — there are those who can be redeemed, and are worth being given a second chance.