Attorney at Law and outspoken Human Rights campaigner Mary Francis reiterated her opposition to the death penalty on Thursday, which marked the World Day Against the Death Penalty.
Francis, the National Centre for Legal Aid and Human Rights Executive Director, expressed that the death penalty was not a deterrent to murder.
“America has retained the death penalty, but look at what is going on in their society. It is not a deterrent at all,” she told St. Lucia Times.
The attorney at law acknowledged that capital punishment had become a taboo subject in Saint Lucia, with people clamouring for the execution of convicted murderers due to the country’s violent crime surge.
Nevertheless, Francis observed that over one hundred countries had abolished the death penalty, while Saint Lucia was one of some fifty states that retain it.
She noted that there have been no hangings in Saint Lucia since the 1980s.
“But with the rate of murders and a population bent on retaining the death penalty, who knows when the politicians can go ahead and hang one or two persons convicted of murder? That is why it is essential to continue the advocacy for the abolition,” Francis told St. Lucia Times.
” You cannot talk about preserving life and being against murder while the state continues to keep the death penalty as part of our law,” she asserted.
Francis called for conflict resolution education and other interventions to help address violent crime.
She also noted the important role the media could play in that regard.
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Miss Poleus, I welcome your point of view on the death penalty but here is why I think the death penalty is needed. The death penalty in your opinion may not deter crime but it will surely rid our society of the monsters the commit the most aggregious of crimes. To say the public is clamouring for the death penalty due to rise of crime is a bit sensational to say the least. The people ( who by the way makes up the society wants a solution) and they have a right to express their anger at the crime levels. Do note that those asking for a solution are not the ones going about committing crime. I believe the death penalty should be reserved for those who have deprived someone else of their human rights to life ….as in an act of first degree/ premeditated murder. The issue is criminals will go on to commit crime knowing that the worst they face is life in prison. But if they know that they will lose their life for taking a life as in first degree or premeditated murder then they surely will think twice. The issue with the court system is the decades of delays of punishing criminals. Here is the solution.
If someone committed first degree murder or premeditated murder and the court has no doubt that the accused is guilty, the evidence points undoubtedly to the accused, the jury voted unanimously for the guilty verdict, then the accused must be given atleast two weeks to appeal. If the appeal fails, and the courts rule for the death penalty, the accused should be executed within a week of his/her failed appeal. If criminals know they will die within a month of being found guilty by the courts, trust me, they will think twice to commit first degree/ premeditated murder. Now in an instant where the courts cannot establish first degree murder then the court should settle for life imprisonment with a possibility of converting that verdict to first degree murder in the event new evidence comes along in the future or where new technology makes the criminal investigation department come up with new leads to the crime committed anytime in the future or as long as the criminal on life imprisonment is alive….but doing so he/ she will constantly have at the back of their minds that there is a possibility that their sentence of life imprisonment can change to the death penalty… trust me they will stop criminality or at least the number of murders will drop…I guarantee you that. So the death penalty is to protect society from brazen criminals by ridding society of those criminals. Are you going to tell me that just by share observation, that the number of murders committed on the island in the last few months even with a court trail, the perpetrators should not get the death penalty? Look at the kinds of murders that have happened… aren’t these premeditated? Of course I believe in trial in court but on balance, the vast majority of these murders were premeditated? Are you going to tell me a serial murderer who has gone to actively plan his attacks does not deserve the death penalty? We can consider the nuance of persons with mental incapacity who commits a murder… again let the courts with the help of professional Psychologist and psychiatrists determine that.
You can argue that criminals have human rights and I agree, but the victim equally had a human right to live or a right to life. I understand these issues are very sensitive but the courts should be on the side of law abiding citizens not criminals. I agree with innocent until proven guilty but the courts should be a place where criminals fear to end up in.
Bottom line is the death penalty should be a tool to rid society of the terrible monsters in our midst and by extension protect the lives of law abiding citizens.
I apologize. I meant Miss Francis…not Miss Poleus.
@C-WIZ, everyone has the right to voice their opinions and feelings but we must be careful not to make decisions when angry or frustrated because that may lead to unforeseen circumstances and end up even more worse off. Important decisions need to have backing before implementation. There are studies which show that the death penalty makes no difference in the level of crime. In fact Jamaica and Trinidad still have it on the books for serious crimes. Tell me has crime gotten better or worse in these states? We should be doing other things with these people, actual rehabilitation even if they have long sentences. To be honest I am not sure what programs are available for inmates at Bordelais.
Mary, just stop with your misinformation and distortions. First of all, some states have the death penalty. In those states, the murder rate is overall lower than the states without death penalty.
Time and time again, in both scientific and non scientific surveys, the St. Lucian people have expressed their wishes for a death penalty. Who takes the lead in what the population wants? Is it the Europeans or the locals? This neocolonialism attitude is what bothers me about Mary. There is always a need to consult a foreign master for decisions that affect locals.
If the Europeans have such an aversion to the death penalty, why aren’t they taking our local murderers to their overseas institutions? Just may be, they can finance a local prison to house their protected ones right here. The whole matter is a case of dominance. A lack of respect for for non white people…the white man’s burden. This is akin to the colonial office making decisions for places that the administrators had never seen in their lifetime. How about respecting local culture and values?
In the age of DNA, proliferation of cameras, computerization and advanced forensics; there is less reliance on sometimes unreliable eyewitness testimony for conviction. In most countries with the death penalty, the jury is briefed that they should not convict unless 100% certain.
In poor countries like here, there has to be a measure of deterrence. This place doesn’t have the resources to become the UK or France. When we threw our main deterrent factor through the window, everyone knows what followed. Who is scared anymore? Surely it wasn’t Mary’s fave clients the “Vieux Fort Five.” She talks of them like the Maroon 5, Hi Five, Jackson 5 or Dave Clark Five. Mary, give me a break today.
Awa Mary, not this time. I generally agree with you on protect the public from Government overreach but if the public demands the death penalty it is because the crime has reached crisis levels. You take life, your life is forfeit. Paying the ultimate price for taking a life is the ultimate deterrent.
@ Oh Really,
I agree that we can’t take decisions when angry as you rightly stated but my argument is based on uncontroversial, irrefutable, beyond reasonable doubt evidence. If the court finds a criminal guilty and the DNA evidence, the facts, eye witness testimony, the jury proves there is no doubt the accused committed the crime, then it’s death penalty. The criminal then has two weeks to appeal the sentence, once the appeal fails, he/she should be executed within a week. The issue with today’s judicial system is that criminals spend decades in custody, living of the state. Well if criminals know that if found guilty, they will be executed within weeks, I guarantee you, they will think twice before committing violent crimes. It’s because criminals know that the most they will face is life in prison, they careless for the consequences of their acts. I only advocate the death sentence in cases where there is no doubt the accused is guilty and there is no chance of executing an innocent individual. We talk about human rights, a right to education, a right to healthcare, right to proper drinking water, what about the right of victims to living their lives? This is a simple and fundamental principle of existence. We all have a right to live a peaceful life and so do the victims of violent crime. I say bring back the death penalty to rid our society of those miscreants who don’t give a care for others right to life. You take a life, you get your day in court, Court finds you guilty and there is absolutely no doubt you are guilty, you get an appeal, if appeal fails, you get executed within a week. I tell you, potential criminals will behave themselves before reaching the point of violent crime when they see how short their life is once they go through the court and found guilty.
THERE IS NO PROOF THAT CAPITAL PUNISHMENT DETERS CRIME AND NONE OF YOU CAN FIND THE EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT YOUR OPINION.
Search “Does Capital Punishment Deter Crime?” on Google, Bing or whatever search engine you subscribe to and you will find numerous scientific articles stating that it has no effect.
If you want these corrupt lawmen in St. Lucia to be Judge, Jury and executioner then good luck to us all.
@ Oh Really.
I live for for those debates. Let me see if I get this right. Capital punishment has no effect on crime in (say) USA, therefore, it has no effect in St. Lucia. What a gem!
Crime needs punishment. Certain crimes are too abhorrent to be punishable by incarceration. With the rate of homicides in this tiny island where will they place all those murderous people who kill.They need at least a life sentence and with the lack of an efficient justice system there is going to be a bottleneck in the penal system. The criminals are fearless and they need to be aware of the fact that there is the potential of the ultimate penalty for taking an innocent life. Capital punishment works..it just works. I am almost certain that one execution of a convicted murderer is enough to send shivers down the spine of another potential killer. Why is it that they get to kill with just a personal decision but get to live after they are arrested, placed on trial and given the right to a defense and still found guilty? Why do they have the right to send shivers down the spine of a whole nation and the justice system can’t do the same?
@Poule Foo, so to your point. I never mentioned the US. I mentioned Jamaica and Trinidad, do you see an improvement in their crime rates over the years with capital punishment? Actually some of the articles I came across featured studies done in Trinidad and Tobago.
And to the others, either way people are on death row for many years partly due to the appeals process and the committee in charge need to be sure before giving the order for execution.
We need to focus on the main problem and that is the incompetence of the police force and its leadership. I will say this again, if the police cannot get sufficient evidence to apprehend criminals for their activities then the problem will continue to grow until its irreversible and some might says its already too late.
Doesn’t our Government have advisors and consultants at every level? Are there security advisors assisting the Minister of National Security? We keep doing the same things expecting a different result, all of the wasted money, all of the new security plans what is the result and when do we expect a result? We never ask these questions but we keep sinking deeper into the hole with a Prime Minister who says bail granted shows innocence.
You know who gets executed? The ones at the bottom of the pyramid, its never the ones at the top. So in a country with so much corruption, regular folk should be weary of giving them more power than they already abuse.
You will continue killing people and the problem will never get solved, its a poor and easy solution to a complex problem.
Can punishment that does not deter be considered effective.
Life sentences for heinous violent murder has not acted as a deterrent if the violent crime numbers in SLU is to be indicative
I strongly recommend the government of st Lucia introduce the death penalty that’s the only thing that we stop the crime in st Lucia
Here are the aims of punishments: to deter, to reform; and to prevent the individual either through death or imprisonment from committing like offenses. The death penalty achieves the third aim. There is a fourth aim, and that is retribution, nothing like deter or reform! So the death penalty fulfils two of the four aims of punishment.
Actually, the death penalty fulfils three of the four aims of punishment, the only one it cannot fulfill is to reform the individual, obviously! So it actually achieves three of the four aims! It’s a bit difficult to think of another form of punishment that achieves most of the aims of punishment!
We cannot generalize the effect of capital punishment. What works there may not work here. Some are highlighting the ineffectiveness of capital punishment in other countries as if that would be the case everywhere. Perhaps the “trial and error “ method can prove one’s case. Why not give it a try. It worked here before. Capital punishment will not deter crime, when it is not practiced even though it is legal. The frequency of capital punishment in a country will determine it’s effectiveness. The greater the frequency, the greater the deterrence.