‘Replace hanging with injection’

PORT-OF-SPAIN – This country cannot afford to waste time and money trying to reform cold-blooded killers, senior counsel Israel Khan has said.Khan became the latest voice on Friday in the current debate on whether hangings should be resumed in this country.“It is quite true to say that the death penalty is the premeditated and cold-blooded killing of a human being by the state. A civilised society cannot afford to be emotional and to build castles in the sky,” he said.He said a criminal’s punishment should take into account both the victim’s and public’s desire for retribution, or there will be vigilante justice consequences.Khan also supported Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s view that murder should be categorised as “first”, “second” and “third” degree. The government should hold a “referendum to determine the general will of the citizenry on this emotional and explosive issue of the death penalty”, Khan said.“It is a fallacy to say that the death penalty has failed to stop the increase in murders. No one knows. The probabilities are that the increase in murder would have been higher if the death penalty was totally abolished,” he said.Khan called for hangings to be replaced by “a more humane and less cruel form of execution, like lethal injection”.  He called for the death penalty for treason to be abolished and only maintained for “deliberate, wicked, evil and atrocious murders”. (Express)