October 10 marked World Day against the Death Penalty. In the same week, on October 14 the Guyana Parliament by a significantly unanimous vote passed legislation to abolish the mandatory death penalty for people convicted of murder unless they have been convicted of murder for a very restricted category of persons including members of the law enforcement officers, prison officers or members of the judiciary.
When Britain in 1957 abandoned the mandatory death sentence for murder, it left it in place for its colonies which generally retained the old provisions when they became in independent. Thirteen countries of the English-speaking Caribbean form a solid bloc of a dwindling number of countries (58) worldwide that still retain the death penalty.
The last CARICOM state execution took place in St Kitts-Nevis in 2008 and Trinidad and Tobago heads the CARICOM list of countries with the highest number of state executions since Independence (including 10 in 1999). Guyana’s last executions (2) took place in 1997.
Addressing Parliament on the legislation that establishes for the first time in the English-speaking Caribbean the categories of capital and non-capital murder Guyana Attorney General Charles Ramson explained that its purpose is in keeping with respect for human rights and dignity and the recognition of the sanctity of life.
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In Jamaica the only other CARICOM with similar legislation, the penalty for first degree murder is not a mandatory death penalty except in cases of the murder of police officers, correctional officers, judges, witnesses, and prosecution counsel as well as for murder committed in the course of committing robbery, rape, burglary or arson, and also acts of terrorism. The last executions in Jamaica took place in 1988, and currently there are 12 persons on death row.
The legislation in Guyana and Jamaica, two of the three most populous countries of CARICOM is likely to have a significant impact in the rest of region. Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar of Trinidad and Tobago has gone on record saying that in her opinion there should be different degrees of murder and the death penalty should be imposed only in certain cases.
“Why it should be the death penalty is the final penalty for every homicide? In other countries where the death penalty is law, they have gone into the degrees of murder and some of the most heinous crimes we will have the death penalty and there may be others, there may be circumstances that do not merit that ultimate, that you die. It is something we are considering actively and our ministerial committee is addressing that,” she told a press conference after a cabinet retreat in Tobago last month.
Clearly from the Christian perspective, a partial abolition of the death penalty while marking an improvement for the Caribbean’s very poor international standing on this issue, still falls short of the example and commandment of Jesus. When the lawyers and Church authorities of his day demanded his support for the death penalty by stoning prescribed for the woman accused of adultery, Jesus’ response was, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” And who among us today is without sin?
Nevertheless Jamaica and now Guyana have taken important steps forward for human dignity, respect for life and compassion. Will the rest of the region follow?
