Death penalty a justified option in heinous cases
Published:Thursday | June 15, 2023 | 12:18 AM
THE EDITOR, Madam:
I am in full support of the call by King’s Counsel defence attorney Peter Champagne for greater accessibility to the prescribing of the death penalty in what he classified as the ‘worst of the worst’ cases of murder in Jamaica.
Children have become an endangered species needing urgent protection, as the most vulnerable in our society are preyed upon and slaughtered dime a dozen, and the island of Jamaica likened to a public abattoir.
In instances of heinous murder, as is the case with young Danielle Rowe, and where the conviction process is impeccable, and appeals are exhausted, accessibility of the legal system to a more readily available death penalty as a justified option for these types of offences should be the normalised course.
The lives of the average Jamaican need to be demonstrated as having value, and convictions of accused murderers so determined at the end of a diligent legal process, should see the death penalty as among the options – with a certain ease of being applied.
But there is a condition which I would recommend – that of a one-year interval in the first instance where the circumstances surrounding the use of the death penalty is reviewed for efficacy and whatever other adjustments can be made as deemed fit.
After which periodic reviews would then become a feature guiding the use of this measure.
DERRICK SIMON