It is today quite clear that much of the support for the imposition of the death penalty in The Bahamas is rooted in the anger caused by the prevalence of violent crime in this brutalized society.
We are also absolutely certain that the police are doing their best to get -as it were- to the source of this country’s crime-saturated distresses. Evidently, Commissioner of Police Mr. Paul Farquharson deserves the respect he is given as he carries out his constitutionally mandated duties. As a consequence of the high office he holds, his words and other utterances do carry some weight.
This conclusion brings us -as it were- to the crux of the matter that concerns us today. To put the matter bluntly and directly, we are convinced that the Commissioner might wish to reflect deeply on his views concerning capital punishment in The Bahamas.
As we recall the Commissioner’s intervention in the so-called debate about capital punishment in The Bahamas, it is being reported, “Amidst a growing number of homicides, Commissioner of Police Paul Farquharson has called for the resumption of hanging in The Bahamas.”
As the newspaper report notes the Commissioner as saying, “I am an advocate of hanging and it’s a pity that it’s [not being carried out],” Mr. Farquharson told The Bahama Journal. It also quotes him as suggesting that he has some regrets about the frequency with which the capital punishment penalty has been applied.
In this regard he rightly notes, “The last person who was [hanged] in The Bahamas was in January of 2000 and I think that’s far too long. I only wish that we could re-institute it. That’s my position. They have been sentenced to death and as far as I’m concerned, the law should be carried out. Now all the gaps that prevent that from happening rest with some other agencies.”
When we read these words, we were somewhat flabbergasted by what seems the Commissioner’s misunderstanding of some elementary facts. Highest on the list would be the fact that capital punishment is still on the books in The Bahamas, which means that those who are calling for the ‘law to take its course’ must be aware that the law is taking its course!
The truth is simple enough, which is as the law takes its course, more and more men and women who are face to face with the law know that they too have rights in the sight of the law, thus their appeals and thus the efforts of their attorneys.
We are quite certain that the Commissioner of Police is a believer in the rule of law and would agree that the appeals process is part of that regime and institution.
We hasten to add, however, that this critique of what the police commissioner said should not be construed to suggest that we would somehow wish to deny Mr. Paul Farquharson a right to his opinion concerning the efficacy of capital punishment. Quite frankly, that is not the issue.
Every one has a right to his or her opinion, which means that the so-called ‘man in the street has a right to his or her opinion, no matter how ill-informed or illogical it might be. The same conclusion cannot be made to fit a personage as important as a police commissioner.
So, while we have our own views on capital punishment, we would not wish to inflict them on others. Quite evidently, how the lawmakers feel about the issue at hand is extremely important.
They can make laws that would ‘speed up’ the processes involved in state-sanctioned killings. That they have not done so suggests that a sufficient number of them have no desire to see the process speeded up.
Other community notables, like Pastor Rex Major, are of another mind, which is that they want ‘an eye for an eye’ and ‘a tooth for a tooth’. They want revenge and retribution. Indeed, Pastor Major would -reportedly- have no objection to making of capital punishment a major public spectacle.
Other Bahamians -including some who are Cabinet Ministers and Members of The House of Assembly and Senate- move in the opposite direction, which is to abhor the legitimating of violence implicit in capital punishment. Like other such highly charged emotional issues, this one will not go away any time soon.
At this juncture -then- it behooves all officials who would speak and be quoted, that they think deeply before they put their mouths into gear.
Editorial from The Bahama Journal
