Security minister supports reviving death penalty

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad and Tobago – The reintroduction of the death penalty would be a deterrent to potential murderers and is a just penalty to heinous crimes, National Security Minister Brigadier John Sandy said on Thursday.Speaking at the post-Cabinet Press briefing at the Office of the Prime Minister in St Clair, Sandy said: “I’m sure you’ll observe [that] when it is their time [to be executed], they try all means available to them to escape the noose. “So, if they know that their lives are so worthy, that their lives are so precious, I think that they will probably think twice before they commit some of the heinous crimes that they have been committing.”Sandy was asked whether he supported the call for the resumption of the death penalty which has been championed by Works Minister Jack Warner and supported by Minister in the Ministry of National Security Subhas Panday. The national security minister responded that he did, but with a caveat.“I support the death penalty to some extent. In other words, I’m saying if someone is found guilty of murder. I’m not saying that it must be exclusive, once you are found guilty of murder you ought to be hanged. “I’m saying that each case must be dealt with on its merit and if it is felt that the person ought to lose his life as well, then I have absolutely no problem with that.”He recalled a case about four years ago when a young man admitted to raping a four-year-old child, going outside to smoke a cigarette afterward and then returning again to continue raping the child.“That child died. And he wants to live? I don’t think so,” Sandy said.The last executions took place in 1999. (Express)