Human Rights In Perspective: HANG DEM!!

I went out last night for drinks with a friend, came home and more or less went straight to bed. I woke up this morning around 4am (don't ask...I just did), rolled over and checked my Facebook (don't judge me) and in doing so I noticed a whole set of statuses that signaled to me something had happened...something tragic, fire was involved, death had been caused and people wanted retribution. Still not prepared to jump to conclusions I updated my status with a small plead:

Guide over us Holy Emmanuel I...

on which someone commented

"...what a tragedy we had last night though .... very very sad... tell me something do u believe in the death penalty ?"

This is when I went searching. Eventually I stumbled across the Nation Newspaper's Facebook Page posting which informed me of the stimulus for the sentiments.


Under the heading of: '6 DEAD - FIERY END TO ATTEMPTED CITY ROBBERY' I was informed that six people perished last night in a blaze that could go down as one of Barbados’ worst human tragedies. The fire, believed to have started by two men who robbed the Campus Trendz store in Tudor Street, The City, engulfed the two-storey building along the busy shopping street, trapping the hapless victims within the inferno. Among the victims was a toddler and the perpetrators apparently attacked the shop's supervisor with a cutlass before setting the place on fire.

[For full story: pick up your copy of the September 4th Saturday Sun and/or check the newspaper's website for more details on this tragic story:http://www.nationnews.com/articles/view/6-dead-fiery-end-to-attempted-city-robbery/]

After reading the article and watching the accompanying raw clip of firemen fighting the blaze which threatened to extend to other buildings along Tudor Street, I understood. I OVERSTOOD why so many people mentioned the death penalty in the same breathe as their condolences to the families and friends of the victims. Indeed, Amanda Lynch-Foster summarised most of the sentiments expressed in the 100-odd other statuses I'd read thus:

is this what Barbados is becoming? No, no, no... we will find you and you must hang. This is what the death penalty is for and that's what we joined the CCJ for. My tax dollars will not go to feed, clothe and shelter these monsters. Know today that the whole of Barbados despises you but we will not live in fear of you and we will NOT protect you - not even within your communities and pseudo-mini 'garrisons'.

I share these sentiments.

HANG DEM!!!

And this is not an emotion-fueled declaration. In my last blog I spoke of the "habitual eclipsing of general human rights by the death penalty" while acknowledging that the debate on the death penalty as a human rights issue is not surprising considering that the punishment has implications for arguably the most important human right- the right to life. So believe me, I have thought on this long and hard for years now.

The death penalty has a very distinct position in our penal system and I STRONGLY believe that the death penalty should be retained and ACTUALLY USED in Barbados. However, I DO NOT think it should be automatically imposed, that is, on a mandatory basis. Punishments should fit crimes, therefore it is my position that the courts should have the room to decide whether an act that results in the death of someone actually DESERVES the death penalty or some other punishment.


Stated succinctly, the five objectives of punishment are:

1. RETRIBUTION - in recognition that punishment is intended to reflect the denouncement by the society and legislature of the offence and the offender.

2. DETERRENCE vis à vis potential offenders- the offender must be punished appropriately to deter other like-minded offenders from engaging in that form of deviant behaviour.

3. DETERRENCE vis à vis the particular offender- Here, the purpose is to seek to ensure that the offender himself is deterred from future criminal conduct by the punishment inflicted on him.

4. PREVENTION - This is aimed at preventing the particular offender from offending against the law by incarcerating him.

5. REHABILITATION The aim is to rehabilitate the offender so that he may reform his ways to become a contributing member of society.

These principles were laid down by Wooding C.J. in the case of Benjamin v. R 1964 7 WIR 459. Clearly, in some cases one objective may be predominant while in other cases, other objectives may prevail. Each case must depend on its own circumstances and various factors must be considered by the court in deciding which principle of sentencing should be predominant. Relevant factors include: the prevalence of the offence in society, the nature and circumstances of the offence, any previous convictions of the offender for like or other serious offences and whether the offender pleads guilty or shows remorse.


That said, where someone is sentenced to death he has a series of appeal opportunities. In fact, under section 92 of the Constitution of Barbados, there is an Advisory Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy to determine if a condemned person should be granted mercy such that his execution is permanently stayed. Whereas the Barbados Juvenile Offenders Act Cap 138, section 14 prohibits the pronouncement of sentence of death on a person who was under 18 at the time he committed the capital offence. So the problem isn’t really the legislative framework as much as it is its execution (pardon the pun).

Illustratively, The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) found that Barbados violated Tyrone DaCosta Cadogan’s rights, guaranteed under Articles 4 (Right to life) and 8 (Right to fair trial) of the American Convention on Human Rights (ACHR), when it sentenced him to death by hanging, pursuant to a Barbadian statute that requires capital punishment for murder. DaCosta Cadogan v. Barbados, decided September 24, 2009, is the second time the tribunal denounced a Barbadian statute requiring the death penalty in murder cases.

Clearly international pressure leans towards the abolition of the death penalty, so much so that in a series of Privy Council decisions have the combined effect of ALMOST abolishing the penalty through the back door. Although the death penalty was technically preserved in Barbados in light of the CCJ Boyce v Joseph decision, the combined effect of the decisions in Pratt and Morgan v. Attorney General of Jamaica [1994] 2 A.C. 1 and Lewis make it very very difficulty to follow through because on the one hand to have someone awaiting executions 5+ years in considered cruel and inhumane while on the other hand they must be afforded the opportunity to appeal to their hearts content. Herein lies what has always been my problem with the Boyce decision, it did not (in my humble opinion) do enough to break the tangled web of the Privy Council's imposition of foreign stances on the region’s death penalty issues.

As Amanda suggested in her status, the CCJ has the power to give effect to the will of the Caribbean people, so that the death penalty may be used WHERE APPROPRIATE to reflect the outrage of society at the perpetration of certain heinous crimes and deter future crimes of a similar nature. This robbery turn inferno is one such heinous crime and retribution is both justifiable and legitimate.

I say all that to say that as tragic a situation as this is, perhaps it is a necessary evil to stimulate the powers that be to take a stance and recognize that the clear majority of the nation strongly supports the retention of the death penalty and takes serious issue with spending in the region of $69 BDS a day for the upkeep of persons convicted of the worst crimes at H.M.P Dodds.

Therefore, I can only hope that this tragedy would provide the impetus for long overdue reform of executive hypocrisy in which much is promised and little delivered to replace it with a purpose-driven decision making body with the welfare AND WILL of its people at the forefront of policy-making.

Further, I’d like to see complimentary reform of judicial action towards a more bold approach to guarantee appropriate application of law, through objective discernment of what compelling public policy considerations should be, within a Caribbean context. For this, the CCJ’s appellate jurisdiction is critical, should its judges resist the allure of conservatism and opt instead for a more independent approach to solving regional legal issues such as that of the death penalty's future.

And while we're on topic, I'd like to see reform of legislative conservatism and bureaucracy as well! Perhaps then we would have a bold legislature that produces laws truly responsive to our indigenous conditions as opposed to slavish adherence to the archaic or mechanical adoption of the external.

Out of an abundance of caution, in closing I wish to emphasise that reform ought to be purpose-driven and not merely a synonym for the emotion-invoking word ‘change’ that has been used in recent years as a vehicle to excite masses rather than encapsulate transformation.

Human Rights most certainly have a place in our legal system as they protect the dignity of the individual however they ABSOLUTELY HAVE to be balanced against the interests of the collective lest anarchy ensue. Indeed, Human Rights are ideals which must function within a wider social and legal framework, so that the right to life, like all other rights, are not and cannot be absolute, especially considering that too much of one right often infringes another.

For a crime like the one perpetrated on Friday night...HANG DEM!


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Below is the sketch of one of the suspects released by officials: SOURCE: http://www.nationnews.com/articles/view/sketch-of-suspect-released/

In a passionate appeal, police public relations officer Inspector David Welch last night urged all Barbadians to do everything in their power to bring the perpetrators to justice.

He also urged members of the public who were in the vicinity of the area about 7 p.m. to assist the police with any information that could lead to the arrest of the two men.

Their descriptions are as follows:

Suspect one was wearing a blue or black peak cap, white T-shirt with horizontal green stripes, dark-coloured pants and a pair of black shoes. He is about five feet, four inches tall, of slim build and of dark complexion.

Suspect two is about five feet, six inches tall, of slim build, and of dark complexion, with a long face with a turned-up nose, and black Afro hairstyle.

According to police, the two men ran away from the scene towards adjoining Milk Market Street before turning left into nearby Watkins Alley, which leads to Mason Hall Street and Chapman Lane in The City.