Execute convicted murderers - Warner

PORT-OF-SPAIN (CMC):

Works and Transport Minister Austin 'Jack' Warner yesterday raised the stakes in a one-man campaign to impose the death penalty here with a petition to press the government to execute convicted murderers.

In an impassioned speech that was long on rhetoric but short on any facts to support the effectiveness of capital punishment, Warner launched 'A Fisherman's Cry' petition in his Chaguanas West riding in central Trinidad, saying that for too long, killers were literally "getting away with murder" and tapped into a current of fear among Trinidadians amid rising violent crime.

Warner said the petition took its theme from the killings of three of his constituents, all fishermen on a fishing trip on January 10. Two men have since been arrested and charged with murdering the men.

"Two children, ages three months and three years have been left without fathers," Warner said. "Think about the hundreds and thousands of other victims from the other crimes in the last decade whose lives have been similarly affected."