Roman Catholic Archbishop in Trinidad says hanging is not a deterrent to murder

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Roman Catholic Archbishop, Jason Gordon, has described hanging as “state-sponsored murder”  saying that the death penalty is not a deterrent to the high number of murders being committed in Trinidad and Tobago.

Speaking on a radio programme, the senior Roman Catholic official recalled being sent to a prison to pray for someone who was about to be executed.

“I went and there were about five of us who prayed  with him…it was so cold and calculated. This was state sponsored murder, you know. We have to call it for what it is. It is one thing to say bring them, hang them, but it is state sponsored murder which I don't see as any better than a villain or a bad boy doing murder. Murder is murder,” he told radio listeners.

There have been no executions carried out in Trinidad and Tobago for over 20 years. The last hanging took place on July 28, 1999 when Anthony Briggs was executed for murder.

Human rights groups say there are approximately 45 individuals on death row in the country and over 1,300 awaiting trial for murder.

The Archbishop recalled the 1999 executions of nine people “in a very short time” saying that those executions did not affect the murder rate.

“Check the murder rate before that nine hangings and check the murder rate right after for the next couple years,” he said, adding “the murder rate escalated.

“So all those who say that hanging is the way to solve the problem  of murder in the country are missing one key fact that those nine hangings did not drop the murder rate. After those hangings the murder the rate went up exponentially,” he said, adding it doubled in two to three years “and it hasn't stopped climbing”.

Archbishop Gordon said the death penalty is not a deterrent, noting that at one stage there was only a one per cent arrest and the conviction rate “is very low also”.

He said that what is needed is better surveillance to get both arrests and convictions, warning also that there is the “systemic underdevelopment of communities” that has been going on from “generations to generations”

He is urging the authorities to step back and say for the next 25 years “this is our plan”  and regardless of who is in government ensure the development of those communities, adding  “because until those communities are developed, we cant deal with the national security challenges or we can deal with it by becoming a police state”.

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