Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis.
By RICARDO WELLS
Tribune Staff Reporter
rwells@tribunemedia.net
PRIME Minister Dr Hubert Minnis yesterday said he has no issue “hanging” any person convicted of murder and “moving on”.
The comment came as he insisted his long-held views on capital punishment have not wavered nor changed since being elected to office in May 2017.
Addressing reporters as he exited Calvary Deliverance Church following a service yesterday, Dr Minnis made it clear if it was up to him, people convicted of murder would be hanged without any remorse on his behalf.
He was responding to questions over the potential for amendments to the Juries Act as referenced by Press Secretary Anthony Newbold last week.
According to Mr Newbold, the House of Assembly is expected to soon debate amendments to the Juries Act, clearing up some provisions to the death penalty for murder.
In response yesterday, Dr Minnis said: “Let’s get it clear, I am a strong advocate of hanging. That has not changed. That will not change.
“However, I am bounded by the laws. But I am a strong advocate for hanging.”
When asked if there were plans being considered by his administration to take the capital punishment debate to referendum this term, Dr Minnis said the issue remains a matter that has to be discussed by his Cabinet prior to any further moves.
Nonetheless he said: “What everybody knows, the world knows, the Bahamas knows that I believe in hanging. I have no reservations about hanging you and moving on.”
Although the law allows for capital punishment, the death penalty has not been carried out since January 2000. That year, David Mitchell was executed for stabbing two German tourists to death.
In 2006, the London-based Privy Council ruled the Bahamas’ mandatory death sentence for convicted murderers was unconstitutional. In 2011 the Ingraham administration amended the death penalty law to specify the “worst of the worst” murders that would warrant execution.
Under the amended law, a person who kills a police or defence force officer, member of the Departments of Customs or Immigration, judiciary or prison services would be eligible for a death sentence. A person would also be eligible for death once convicted of murdering someone during a rape, robbery, kidnapping or act of terrorism.
There have been calls by several international bodies over the last decade for the Bahamas to abolish the death penalty outright.
Attorney General Carl Bethel has maintained on several occasions, the country has no intention of adhering to these calls.
In January, Mr Bethel addressed the international recommendations that the country has not accepted during his national report to the United Nations Human Rights Council’s (UNHRC) Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group session in Geneva, Switzerland.
“. . . There is no appetite on the streets if you will in the Bahamas for any ability for compromise on that issue (capital punishment),” Mr Bethel told the UN. “It is an emotive matter and so what we try and do is to show through raising our conviction rates, through our prosecutors, to give a sense of comfort to the populace that there is a remedy, there is a punishment that fits the crime.”
He added: “The Bahamas maintains its position on the retention of the death penalty. In fact, one of the recommendations submitted by the Constitutional Commission, after consultation, was the retention of the death penalty. The Bahamas continues to recognise the lawfulness of the death penalty as a punishment for the crimes of murder and treason, on a discretionary basis and subject to the conditions laid down in the case law.
“That said,” he continued, “the Bahamas is not considering any immediate action to establish a formal moratorium on the death penalty. The last mandated execution took place 17 years ago, even in the absence of a formal moratorium.”
While in opposition, the Free National Movement frequently called for the death penalty to be enforced.
Comments
BahamaLlama 6 years, 4 months ago
Sounds great, apart from one small problem. He's a doctor, and swore an oath to do no harm. Not exactly a win for integrity. More a win for schizophrenia.
Oh, and the organised modern world moved on from that medieval practice a long time ago (except for the US, which is the last and only major country to still allow it - like it did with racial segregation).
Dawes 6 years, 4 months ago
The US was the last major country to do this? What about China, or Japan? and on the racial Segregation have you forgot South Africa or many other countries as well?
DDK 6 years, 4 months ago
Add Saudi Arabia!
BahamaLlama 6 years, 3 months ago
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/maps… - US is the only Western one.
ConchFretter 6 years, 4 months ago
He swore an oath to do no harm to any of his patients... not to any person, anywhere, regardless of their transgressions. Apples and oranges.
TalRussell 6 years, 4 months ago
Blind vision!
http://tribune242.com/users/photos/2018…
Alex_Charles 6 years, 4 months ago
After Goodman got off of death row it's clear there is no turning back. If what that piece of human filth did to that little boy isn't the worst of the worst, I'm not sure what is.
proudloudandfnm 6 years, 4 months ago
Will Minnis ever learn to stop pandering????
This dude is about as genuine as trump. Totally fake.
joeblow 6 years, 4 months ago
At least Trump gets results!
TalRussell 6 years, 4 months ago
Ma Comrade PM wants hang we Children's?
You'd thinks PM would focus what's in his power to act on likes his many unfulfilled campaign promises - not be pulling a Trump on the most serious of topics - Snapping necks ... And, if he's serious - wouldn't PM not have reduce age Hanging to Teenagers years - since they're among our Killers?
Well_mudda_take_sic 6 years, 4 months ago
Minnis will say anything in an effort to distract our attention away from his dismally bad governance of our country's affairs.
TalRussell 6 years, 4 months ago
Ma Comrade PM, snapping necks will not make you look like strong leader - rather pulling a Trump change narrative when it has grown so negative against your Imperial governing style..... which makes you even more colonialist than a Pop Symonette or Sir Stafford.
DWW 6 years, 4 months ago
Given my confidence in the law enforcement and legal sectors of our society to be fair, just and able to convict the right man - as much as i would like to see a murderer hanged, i doubt very much the right guy will get the loop. Therefore, the Bahamas will end up hanging a lot of innocent people perhaps. And since we are on the subject what exactly constitutes TREASON in this country? is it treason against the PLP or the FNM? or is it treason to not catch all the poachers?
TheMadHatter 6 years, 4 months ago
Mudda.sic???? "Dismally bad"??? How so? Maybe give 3 examples? Im not an FNM but i see things moving forward well.
What say you sir?
EasternGate 6 years, 4 months ago
Hang the S.O.B's
Andros242 6 years, 4 months ago
HANG em, and hang em high! Have all the death row inmates watch - and those killers out on bail wearing ankle monitors that don't work, make them watch too!
John 6 years, 4 months ago
Some things to consider: with over a hundred murders happening every year for at least 6 or 7 years and based on the detection rate, there should be several hundred persons in jail charged with murder. And based on the conviction rate there is a large number of convicted murderers in jail. According to crime statistics most of them are under 30 and as many as half are under 20 when they enter jail. And based on a life expectancy of 75 years, the Bahamian taxpayers will have to take care of these killers for an average of 50 years. And based on an estimated cost of $30,000 a year these murderers will cost the state about $1.5 million each before they die. And with a prison population of several hundred murderers, the murder rate is zero over quite a number of years and even attempted murder is not a serious problem. So in essence, persons serving time for murder in jail are safer (from murder) than the general Bahamian population. So what are the differences in conditions that make young, free men kill compared to those incercerated? And if you look at The demeanor of many of the persons charged with recent murders, they seem resolved in what they did. Killed someone. Took a life, committed bloody murder. No resentment, no remorse, hardly any emotion. But a look as if to say ‘yes I did it, I am a killer now, I’ve earned my stripes, the teardrop tattoo under my eye. And you better don’t sleep on me!’ So what you gonna do Bahamas? What you gonna do now?
John 6 years, 4 months ago
Part Two will follow.later today..if the spirit leads me...
Sickened 6 years, 4 months ago
I think rapists should also get the death penalty. Except they should be hung by their genitals until they are dead, dead, dead!
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