The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Chief Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

FNM Senator Darren Henfield has called on the country to “take the bull by the horns” and enforce the death penalty, advocating for the Court of Appeal to replace the Privy Council as the ultimate authority in such cases.

He voiced his support for capital punishment and the removal of the UK-based Privy Council as the highest appellate court for murder convicts while condemning recent violent crimes, including the murders of two men in front of their children.

“How you can just walk around here, walk up to a father with his children, picking him up from school and my understanding from fellows on the streets is even street ethics are now out of the window,” he said during his contribution to debate on the National Crime Intelligence (Amendment) Bill in the Senate yesterday.

Acknowledging that some might see his death penalty stance as “barbaric,” he emphasised that laws are in place to deal with murderers, adding: “We gotta do something to stop these killings.”

Although the law allows for capital punishment, the death penalty has not been enforced since January 2000, when David Mitchell was executed for stabbing two German tourists to death.

In 2006, the London-based Privy Council ruled that the country’s mandatory death sentence for convicted murderers was unconstitutional.

Some legislators believe the Privy Council would never uphold the death penalty.

“The Privy Council has shown us that it is not willing to cause an execution of a murderer to happen in The Bahamas or the Commonwealth Caribbean anytime soon,” Mr Henfield said.

“And so I believe it is time now for us to take the bull by the horn and do what we must to preserve The Bahamas, to preserve our existence, preserve our way of life, which we’ve all come to love.”

He said switching to the Caribbean Court of Justice would make little difference, adding that “hardly any daylight” exists between it and the Privy Council.

He noted that some Commonwealth countries have amended their constitutions to circumvent the Privy Council but clarified he was not suggesting this.

Instead, he urged lawmakers to consider making the Court of Appeal, which he said comprised some of the brightest judges in the world, as the final court in instances of murder.

“We need people who sit in the courts and hear these matters, who are in touch with the socialisation of the Bahamian people, who feel what we feel every day as we move about these streets in The Bahamas where the fear of crime is so high now it’s palatable,” he said.

“Something has to change. We cannot allow the status quo to maintain and reap the same old results, and I am bold enough to suggest that our Court of Appeal can litigate, adjudicate on these matters and come to the results that the law of The Bahamas dictates that they come to. I’m satisfied that they can.”

“You could keep the Privy Council for your civil side if that’s what you want. Do the research. It can be bifurcated. Well, if it can’t, let’s get rid of them all together.”

According to the Constitution, Parliament holds the authority to determine whether appeals from the Court of Appeal in The Bahamas can go to the UK-based Privy Council or to a different court. Parliament can enact a law establishing a different court to replace the Privy Council in handling appeals.

While in opposition, former Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis pledged that if elected, he would immediately seek to amend the constitution to remove the UK-based Privy Council as the highest court of appeal for murder convicts. However, that never happened, and FNM legislators did not publicly call for action. Mr Henfield was the Minister of Foreign Affairs under the Minnis administration.