Capital Punishment in the Bahamas

by Larry Smith

Let the punishment be equal with the offence.
Cicero

"As I read the New Testament, I don't see anywhere in there that killing bad people is a very high calling for Christians. "
James Park, former execution officer, San Quentin Prison, California

"The death penalty is a poor person's issue. Always remember that: after all the rhetoric that goes on in the legislative assemblies, in the end, when the deck is cast out, it is the poor who are selected to die ."
Sister Helen Prejean

“The recidivism rate for capital punishment is zero. No executed murderer has ever killed again. You can't say that about those sentenced to prison, even if you are an abolitionist.”
Wesley Lowe

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Ever since the 7th century BC, when Greece’s Draconian legal code made death the only penalty for every crime, the world has been moving away from capital punishment.

This is despite the fact that every country is still ready and willing to kill thousands and even millions of human beings to defend themselves or to exert their political will.

More than a hundred countries have abolished the death penalty in law or in practice - the United States and Japan being the only developed democracies that still carry out judicial killings. There are currently over 3,000 people waiting to be put to death in the US.

In the ancient world, death sentences would be carried out by extravagant methods like crucifixion, drowning, burning, boiling, stoning, beheading, disembowelment and impalement.

But about 1500 years ago, hanging became the preferred method of execution in Britain, from where we derive our legal code. Until the late 19th century, the “long drop” (as it was known) was still the penalty for hundreds of crimes - including shoplifting, poaching and “being in the company of gypsies”.

These days, the death penalty is reserved for the most serious offences – like aggravated murder or treason - and capital punishment is viewed by most countries as an exception to be accompanied by stringent safeguards. Amnesty International regards it as “the ultimate, irreversible denial of human rights.”

No one has been executed in Britain since 1964. The following year the British parliament abolished capital punishment for murder, and in 1998 outlawed it for all crimes - both civilian and military, although there is still a strong current of opinion in favour of capital punishment.

Perhaps the best argument against the death penalty is the certainty that innocent people will be executed. In fact, one of the last people hanged in Britain was a mentally handicapped teenager who was later awarded a posthumous pardon.

In America, most of those executed could not afford a trial lawyer. And studies have shown the death penalty to be racially biased. For example, in Florida, experts say a black man convicted of killing a white man is five times more likely to receive a death sentence than a white man convicted of killing another white man.

A study of hundreds of criminal cases in which the convicted person was exonerated suggests there are thousands of innocent people in American prisons today. And the leading causes of wrongful convictions for murder were false confessions and perjury by co-defendants, informants, police officers or forensic scientists. We can only imagine how many similar unfortunates are locked away at Fox Hill after being processed by our courts and police.

Despite the clear risk that this could happen to any of us at any time, most Bahamians and other CARICOM nationals share a biblical attachment to execution as a response to violent crime. But judges have been chipping away at the practice for years.

In 2001, the Eastern Caribbean appeal court deemed the automatic death penalty “cruel and inhuman punishment.” In 2002, the Privy Council in London – still the highest court of appeal for most CARICOM countries – upheld that judgment. In 2004, the Privy Council ruled against the mandatory death sentence in Jamaica.

Courts can still impose the death pentalty in countries where mandatory sentencing has been struck down. But the Privy Council has also ruled that keeping a condemned man on death row for more than five years is cruel and unusual punishment. And this has halted executions in many Caribbean countries.

“The difficulty was that death row inmates would appeal to international human rights organisations that took years to render a decision,” explained Trinidad newspaper editor Therese Mills. “So a convicted killer could keep raising appeal after appeal, knowing that he could not be hanged after five years were up.”

Courts have also commuted death sentences in the expectation that prisoners would be on death row for an inhumanely long time waiting for their appeals to be heard. This issue is one of the chief reasons why CARICOM agreed to set up the Caribbean Court of Justice to replace the Privy Council as the region’s final court of appeal.

The CCJ was inaugurated a year ago to serve as a tribunal for disputes arising from the Caribbean Single Market and Economy and also to be the region’s highest appellate body in civil and criminal matters. Only Barbados and Guyana have so far passed the necessary legislation, but it is expected that other countries will sign on over time.

The Privy Council ruling earlier this month abolishing the mandatory death penalty in the Bahamas was the result of an appeal brought on behalf of two murderers who have been on death row at Fox Hill for six and eight years respectively. The ruling means that the sentences of as many as 30 prisoners currently on death row will now have to be reviewed by the Supreme Court.

"The implications for future murder trials will be the introduction of a completely new set of procedures restricting the imposition of the death penalty in the first instance,” said Maurice Glinton, one of the Bahamian attorneys who worked on the appeal. “The Privy Council has gone some way towards ensuring that the law and practice in the Bahamas conforms with international human rights standards in the application of the death penalty. "

Responding to public opinion, Attorney General Allyson Gibson quickly said she would do “everything in my power to ensure that all sentences, including the death sentence in appropriate cases, are carried out expeditiously."

Meanwhile, the Privy Council warned that “Should the Supreme Court, on remission, consider sentence of death to be merited in either case, questions will arise on the lawfulness of implementing such a sentence.” This was clearly a reference to the fact that the two men directly affected by the ruling had been on death row longer than five years and an indication that their sentences would have to be commuted.

All this has led some to call for a rethinking of our relationship with the Privy Council. As one government-connected editorialist put it: “The irony is that the Bahamian people rejected further relations with CARICOM last year...that included the Caribbean Court of Justice. Now they don’t have that court, and it is clear that the Privy Council which sits in Britain, and has mainly British judges, is intent on doing away with capital punishment in these former colonies.”

But according to lawyer Fred Smith of the Grand Bahama Human Rights Association, “We should not even begin to debate getting rid of the Privy Council. It remains our conduit to judicial determination of issues in the Bahamas based on international human rights norms and progressive thinking, for the most part.

“If we abolish it we will be blocking our global artery, and we will risk a series of jurisprudential strokes which may develop from myopic, insular, nationalistic and cannibalistic judicial thinking - especially if we keep importing judges from the Caribbean who have no independence and who remain in the Bahamas at Immigration's will.”

In response to the recent ruling, Amnesty International urged the Christie administration to abandon state killings – an unlikely prospect in the current political climate, where even churchmen are among the most vociferous proponents of hanging.

“The majority of the world’s countries no longer have the death penalty in law or practice and only a small minority actually carry out executions,” Amnesty said. “The government of the Bahamas should take this chance to join the global trend away from use of the death penalty.”

Well, it is true that the Privy Council ruling brings the Bahamas into line with evolving international standards. The United Nations says that a mandatory death penalty, which precludes the possibility of a lesser sentence regardless of the circumstances, is inconsistent with the prohibition of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Sixteen people have been executed in the Bahamas since Independence in 1973 - six in the past 10 years. The last execution here was carried out in January 2000, but mandatory death sentences continue to be handed down, so clearly there is a need to rationalise the system.

After the fatal stabbing of a guard during a prison escape in January , there have been widespread public calls for the resumption of hangings. And Prime Minister Perry Christie has found it politic to mouth support for this.

Today, capital punishment is officially sanctioned by most American states, as well as by the US federal government. Critics say the homicide rate in those states with the death penalty is almost double the rate in states without the death penalty.

In 1966 Canada limited the death penalty to the killing of on-duty police officers and prison guards. Ten years later, the Canadian parliament abolished capital punishment for civilian crimes and in 1998 it was abolished for all offences. The last execution in Canada was in 1962.

The murder rate in Canada has steadily declined since abolition. And Canadian research on the deterrent effect of punishment has reached the same conclusion as the overwhelming majority of US studies: the death penalty has no special value as a deterrent when compared to other punishments.

But according to Lord Denning, one of the most celebrated British judges of the 20th century, “It is a mistake to consider the objects of punishments as being a deterrent or reformative or preventive and nothing else...The truth is that some crimes are so outrageous that society insists on adequate punishment, because the wrongdoer deserves it, irrespective of whether it is a deterrent or not."

This is one of those very complex and emotionally charged issues that cuts to heart of how we run our country. Some think you can measure enlightenment by how we treat the most vulnerable sectors of society - women, children, minorities and prisoners.

But others believe there is no substitute for the best defence, which is capital punishment: “It not only forever bars the murderer from killing again, it also prevents parole boards and criminal rights activists from giving him the chance to repeat his crime.

You make the call.

Comments

[bahamianworldcitizen]

I really enjoyed reading Larry Smith’s and Sir Arthur Foulkes’ blogs on the death penalty issue. Morally I agree with the death penalty for certain crimes, but in reality I have more sympathy for the abolitionists’ point of view about our flawed judicial system and about needing to bring the Bahamas inline with human rights and international norms on this issue.

I don't agree with the Privy Council ruling. It was not based on 'bringing the Bahamas into line with evolving international standards' as was quoted on the Amnesty website. The ruling was based on an opinion that the mandatory death penalty was always unconstitutional based on established principles prior to the 1973 constitution. So now the Privy Council is also has a psychic judicial committee. Interesting…

I wonder what is worse a psychic judicial committee or a ‘myopic, insular, nationalistic and cannibalistic’ judiciary as described by Mr. Fred Smith. I have a little bit more confidence in our Caribbean judges and our Commonwealth judges brought from a far. If anything, they are impeded only by a lack of a central judicial complex, central databases and other funding issues, which perhaps the new Attorney General would wish to address, eh hem.

I really think its time for the Bahamas (and Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Grenada, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines—I can’t say for the Cook Islands and Tuvalu) to reconsider our relationship with the Privy Council. I'm probably in the minority on this one. I wonder if the President of the Privy Council, the Rt Hon Baroness Valerie Amos of Brondesbury, who hails from Guyana, would like to give us her perspective on her country's legal development according to progressive development of international legal norms. By the way the Guyanese Constitution of 1980 with 1996 reforms is a good read if you’re bored this weekend.

[drew Roberts]

[Until the late 19th century, the “long drop” (as it was known) was still the penalty for hundreds of crimes - including shoplifting, poaching and “being in the company of gypsies”.]

[Ever since the 7th century BC, when Greece’s Draconian legal code made death the only penalty for every crime]

Just thought I would post some interesting links in respect of laws that were too harsh for the crime and the benefits of trial by jury when such laws exist.

http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/zenger/nullification.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jury_nullification

http://www.friesian.com/nullif.htm

http://www.fija.org/

http://www.greenmac.com/eagle/ISSUES/ISSUE23-9/07JuryNullification.html

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=jury+nullification&btnG=Google+Search

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Now as to the recent ruling:

I see at least two remedies for the Bahamian people if they are displeased with this result.

1. Change the constitution to make it specifically legal.

2. Change the constitution to take the Privy Council out of the picture.

Does anyone see any others.

Now, this is not meant to be a call for such. I am unfortunately not well enough informed on the specifics to have a well formed opinion on the matter in particular.

One problem I have with this is that our Bahamian laws are copyrighted. I think this is crazy. The Bahamian people should have the right to make whatever copies of their laws as they see fit and to traffic in those laws amongst each other and anyone else.

I would like to point out that, as I understand things, the US law will not recognize copyright claims on any countries laws including ours. (Does anyone with more information on this have any comments? Please?)

all the best,

drew

(+1)/10 to send email

[larry smith]

Please contact me directly by email. i would like to consult with you on the refugee issue.

[larry smith]

Thanks for the links Drew.

As for copyright, when my company reprinted the Bahamas Independence Order (or consttitution) a couple of years ago we got permission from Her Majesty's Stationery Office in London because it was an act of the British parliament. However, the permission was just a routine clerical requirement. *I would imagine its the same here but will look in to it.

[drew Roberts]

Thanks for the response Larry.

If it is indeed just a routine clerical requirement, what is the real purpose? Can permission be denied? under what conditions?

It just seems odd that we still maintain ignorance of the law is no excuse and then turn around an copyright the laws so that making copies is an offence.

Something is not right with that picture from where I sit.

all the best,

drew

(+1)/10 to send email

[anon]

I think the death penalty is barbaric, and if it does do anything, state-sponsored killing reinforces the point that killing the person who wronged you is the right thing to do.

If you compare the years of hangings with the years of murders you will find that, generally,when the hangings start,the numbers of murders also begin to climb.

I want to take issue with your stated view of a connection between the Caribbean Court of Justice, and the death penalty.The decision to
establish the CCJ was taken in 1992, two years before the Privy Council decided Pratt and Morgan.The decision to establish the court had more to do with the concept of soverignty than any other idea.

It was argued that Caribbean countries would not really be soverign as long as the final decisions were made by their former colonial masters.This, and the need to have a court of original jurisdiction for the CSME, led to the decision to establish the court.

You quite rightly pointed out that the latest PC decision,was an affirmation of a decision by the East Caribbean Court of Appeal,a court made up entirely of West Indian Judges.This fact alone should dispell the notion that a West Indian court would automatically be a 'hanging court'. Since the CCJ has at least one Dutch judge and one English judge, it would be foolhardy to assume that it would naturally be a hanging court.

[Sandra Baggott]

I would like a list of names with residence address of all the men who were hung in the Bahamas from 1972 thru 1976. Is this possible? from what I understand there weren't that many. I'm trying to do an investigation that may lead to a book or movie about my escape from this real serial killer that was hung some where in the Bahamas / Caribbean Islands after killing his 27th victem according to an old newspaper article I no longer have. I would appreciate any information you can offer. I have included the events of my story below if you care to read it. Thank you

I am looking for the
Diary Of A Serial Killer
A black man who resided in Milwaukee’s downtown Wisconsin Ave. Marquette area back in 1972 /1974.
He was around 6 feet tall, good looking, around 30 years old and wore dark sunglasses.
He killed 27 women throughout the United States.
He was hung in the Bahamas around 1973 / 1974 after killing his 27th victim.
I was listed in his diary as the only girl who got away according to Milwaukee Journal 1973 / 1974 but no body knows that was me because the killer didn’t know my name.
This week I will try and locate any police report that was created from me which will be like looking for a needle in a hay stack and I will also try and find the news paper report from archive micro film.
I also have a lead on locating the Jr. High school teacher who took me to a safe place to phone the police after the ordeal.
At the time my name was Sandra Heinrich.

THIS IS THE WHOLE TRUTH
Back in 1973 / 1974 I was a victim of a black male serial killer who lived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Wisconsin Ave.
This killer I don't remember his name, kept a diary of all his 27 killings and also listed me not by name but as being the only girl that got away. Sometime within 1973 and 1974 a newspaper article was in our Milwaukee Journal and stated that this killer was hung in the Bahamas. It stated his address somewhere on Wisconsin Avenue where he in fact took me at gunpoint and made me get in his car. I had been to an art/craft festival at the Milwaukee Arena shortly before, but I lost my friends. There were no cell phones in those days. I decided to walk to my place of employment Marcs Big Boy on 5th and Wisconsin to pick up my check. I cashed my check at the bar next door to get money for the bus. The black man was at the bar and followed me to the corner where I stood waiting for the buss. It was about 6:30 P.M. and still light outside. He was whistling as he approached me. He was a good looking man about 6ft tall wearing very dark sun glasses. Then from under his long black coat he pulled out a cut off shotgun. He made sure I saw it!
He gave the orders and I listened. He took me into a Marquette College area between two cement walls and demanded my money. I said I don't have any money I opened up my purse and pulled everything out. He then grabbed my purse and looked through its single pocket. I repeated “see I don't have any money now will you let me go?” I told him I am just a kid and I’m really very poor. I sewed this mink collar on my jacket from an old outfit my mom was going to throw away. He then took my purse and shook it upside down and the $70.00 I hid under the bottom flap flew out because he knew he had just seen me stick it in my purse at the bar. He then made me cross the street and start walking east about a block or two. I was trying to calmly incorporate God into my one sided conversation which he kept telling me to shut up or I’m dead. I was hoping to soften his heart. I watched many cars and even cop cars pass by, but he said if I scream he’ll put a bullet in me. If he goes down, I go down too. I was only 17 but he seemed to be around 28 or 35. We walked to the back of a duplex where his car was parked. He made me get in then he drove me to a very dark side of a park off Prospect Ave., then he made me get out. There was another car parked beside us with a white man holding a newspaper in front of his face. I thought it vary strange because you couldn't read in the dark! The black man made me walk down a path with bushes on both sides. I was wearing a dark brown midi suede jacket. I was pretty with long blond hair. I told the black man calmly I knew the policeman who patrolled this area. He was a Texan and he and my girlfriend date each other TRUE STORY and he definitely is on foot patrolling around here right now. The black man started to look around while raising his voice that I must be kidding!
His voice would drown out my next move… I quickly pulled my brown coat slightly over my head and ducked down under a bush. It was so dark I knew I’d blend in. I was only 110 lbs. The black man couldn't see me at all and kept shouting where did I go and that he'd give me to the count of three and I better come out or he would find me and kill me. I must have freaked him out because he said in a frustrated voice, "what are you some kind of Angle or something" "just disappear like that'?”Shit!" I remember holding my breath and breathing slightly through my mouth so the hairs in my nostrils wouldn't give me away! I didn't dare budge a leaf. I couldn’t tell if the black man went back to his car but shortly after the white guy came out quietly and started to look for me. He didn't call for me he just stood quietly over me looking around. I was right beneath his feet and I could see that he had black leather boots and black pants and a long chain dangling. He wasn't even going potty. He just quietly looked around. He probably thought that I was going to run to him and ask for his help. I was much smarter than that. I know he was the clean up guy! I couldn't tell if the white guy walked back to his car or where the black guy went all I knew is that I was not going to leave my safe hiding spot until the sun came up. It was around 4:30 or 4:45 am and I could see the sky lighting up. I made a fast dash across the park and crossed the street where a man and woman had just come out of there apartment. I recognized the man as being a school teacher from my Jr. High school as if God was helping me feel safe again. They drove me to a nearby cafe where we called the police and my parents came and picked me up at the station. The officer taking my report refused to believe my story because serial killers especially a black and white team just couldn't exist in his mind. He even tried to convince my parents that I was just a young girl partying out all night.
About 7 months after the incident my mom spotted an article in the newspaper about a black serial killer man from Milwaukee who was just hung in the Bahamas for the murder of 27 women Nation wide. I was listed in his diary by discription as being the only girl that got away. You think that stupid cop who didn't believe me would have put the two and two together and try and contact me for identification. He probably threw out the report the moment we left the police station. My parents were just happy that I was alive and we really never thought to go back to the police station with the newspaper article. We ended up throwing it away. I'd like to read that diary and learn about the women he killed and how he killed them. I’d like to locate that newspaper article with his face and address.
I have friends at work who would like to see a movie made on this and a coworker at work who has her own books published has offered to help. Milwaukee would certainly take an interest in hearing about this man and I'm the only living witness with his attempt to kill failed. I can only accomplish this if I can get a hold of the proper information.
Will you please contact me and let me know if there are available records somewhere in the Bahamas on the hanging that occurred in the mid 1970's. I noticed that there were only 16 hangings in the Bahamas from 1972 to 2007. I'm glad he was hung and not returned to the U.S. jail system sucking up our tax paying benefit dollars!
Please contact me with any information you may supply. Sandra Baggott, 4818 Shirley Ave., Racine, Wisconsin 53406. 262-619-4144 or sandbag1957@yahoo.com CST. Please send a return email as soon as you read this. I look forward to your response. Thank you very much.