The Tribune

By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Tribune Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMAS Christian Council president Bishop Delton Fernander has suggested the country may need to consider other methods of capital punishment in the face of a spate of murders, telling The Tribune a “strong deterrent” is needed for criminals wreaking havoc on society.

While he conceded the BCC remains divided on the issue of capital punishment, Bishop Fernander said the country must consider what will work and see to it that it comes into force.

His comments came as the country has recorded six murders within the first five days of the year.

Bishop Fernander said this is both “alarming and concerning”.

“Obviously the council is divided on that and capital punishment,” he said.

“We’ve been divided for a very long time and so there must be a penalty and there must be a deterrent and we must figure out what works in our context. Our neighbours to the north, they don’t do the heinous act of hanging by rope but they do the lethal injection.”

The last person executed in The Bahamas was David Mitchell in January 2000. He was convicted of stabbing two German tourists to death.

Mitchell’s execution by hanging was controversial because it was carried out while he had an appeal pending before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

Bishop Fernander continued: “We must come together as a nation and say what works for us, but there has to be a strong deterrent to our young men taking lives.”

Asked if he was of the view that lethal injection could work in The Bahamas, the BCC president said he believed research should be done.

“I am not definitive on it. We need to do some research. We need to stop just throwing money at things and we need to study it. I am proposing from the council that a study be done with the young men at Boys Industrial (Simpson Penn School for Boys) and the young men that are coming into the prison system and see what’s systemic and go after them. Let’s spend time and energy trying to fix that which is broken in our society.

“We are trying to fix something that is already happening and we need to find the causal effect. Now the lethal injection can be one of the tools, but it will not solve the problem.”

Earlier, Bishop Fernander said society needed to do a better job of protecting women and children who have been victims of crime.

On Sunday, 18-year-old Jilny Flereume was murdered in Abaco. Her brother, 11, was also shot and was said to be in hospital recovering. Days earlier, an Abaco mother was killed during a suspected domestic dispute.

“We are very alarmed and taken aback with the spate of murders that have taken place within this early portion of the year and we are partnering with the state and with the crime prevention council and the police force to do our very best as a pillar of society. We believe that all of us must do our part,” said Bishop Fernander.

“Our young men have reached the place where they cannot de-escalate their conflicts and they are unfortunately taking each other’s lives over needless situations.

“This sometimes involves children and our vulnerable females. I think we need to do better as a society to protect our children and those that are in toxic relationships and help them get out of them.”

The religious leader said he believed that the COVID-19 induced removal of key programmes resulted in many not having a proper outlet to channel frustration.

“We have partnered with the neighbourhood watch. We have a permanent seat on the crime council that we are intricately involved with behind the scenes,” he said.

“It might not be known by the Press, but we are involved behind the scene with the mobilisation of programmes and we are trying to help those in power see the need for permanent intervention that some of the things we do as a church has to be funded like the after-school programmes, the counselling relief, all of this stuff.

“As we see during COVID-19, when all of these things are removed from society, there is no outlet. There is no place for these young men to not only vent, but have positive replacement with what is going on in society.”

It will take a concerted effort from society to stifle the proliferation of crime, he said.

“This is not a government problem, but a society problem and because it is a society problem, we’ve got to partner with, in particular the law enforcement area, to really remove the opportunity.

“For this to take place in our society... all the state can do is provide the necessary technology and the necessary things in place, but ultimately we, who are saying enough is enough... must take in hand these young men that are seemingly changing the whole mood of our society.”