Whenever there is a murder committed in Barbados expect to hear the cry from the public, hang them! The recent robbery at the Campus Trendz store in Tudor Street which resulted in the death of six persons has sparked the usual debate, hang them! Barbadians in favour of capital punishment should soon come to the realization that hanging will not* occur ever again in Barbados. Almost 90% of lawyers in Barbados actively lobby against it and 90% of the Lower House (lawmakers) is comprised of lawyers. The traditional media in a macabre way exploits the capital punishment debate because it makes for good sales.
There is the other side of the debate which in the emotion of the moment we always forget. What about the actors who have to participate in the executions? There is the Judge, Executioner, Prison Warders, Priest, family members and others. Many stories can be told of judges, priests and warders whose mental state have been noticeably affected because of their close association with executions. In fact many of the actors involved in the execution over the years have committed suicide. So many people who have had to endure great psychological pain all in the name of justice. It is interesting to note the priest who was always invited to the cell to forgive the sins of the condemned person did so at great personal sacrifice. Often the priest had to visit the prison in the dead of the night to retrieve the soul of the condemned person before the scheduled early morning execution.
What BU finds fascinating is the role of the Executioner. Many believe the job of Executioner is without preparation. How often have we heard people, perhaps in ignorance volunteering to do the job for free?
The Executioner arrives at the prison around midday before the execution. He is given a room, because he will be there until after the execution. His first job is to weigh the prisoner and measure his height and to estimate the musculature of his neck. The prisoner is taken out of the condemned cell for about an hour, during which time the executioner goes into the execution chamber, which is right next door to the condemned cell. He collects the tools of his trade from the warder – arm and leg straps, hood and two ropes which feed through eyes to form the noose. The Executioner selects the appropriate rope, nooses it, calculates the drop, so as to sever the vertebrae between the first and second and then attaches to the rope a sandbag of the same weight as the condemned. He then works the mechanism of the drop and leaves the rope to stretch with its sandbag over night.
Next morning armed with the knowledge the condemned person is next door, he quietly retrieves the rope, makes final adjustments to the drop, retracts the trap door, marks a T on the spot the condemned will stand and moves the cotter pin on the mechanism, so that it is just flush. He also places two parallel planks over the drop for warders, in case the condemned cannot stand on his own. He then waits outside the condemned cell, until the warder gives him the signal. Then, he goes into the condemned cell and binds arms of the condemned person. While he is doing this, the door that leads directly from the cell to the execution chamber is opened. The executioner conducts the condemned to the gallows and, while he is hooding and noosing the condemned, his assistant straps his feet. The executioner then removes the cotter pin and pushes the lever and the condemned drops. Then, he goes to the walkway with the doctor and priest and opens the condemned’s shirt so that the doctor can pronounced death. They then leave the man hanging for half an hour in the locked chamber. After half an hour, the executioner returns to the pit, attaches a winch to the man, releases the noose and then strips the man of his clothing and hoses down both man and chamber. He then places the man on a gurney and that is his job done.
BU understands there is a thing called the “death watch”, which is a rotation of guards who are with the prisoner in the condemned cell up until he is taken into the chamber. BU further understands almost all of those guards have required psychiatric attention at some point in the past.
Some years ago the Caribbean was awakened to the news that Trinidad had executed drug lord Dole Chadee along with eight members of his gang. A decade later the murder rate per one hundred thousand in Trinidad and Tobago is one of the highest in the Caribbean and the world. To those who suggest hanging is a deterrent the T&T experience makes for an interesting and sobering case study.
Then we have the likes of Bush Tea and Bonny Peppa who hold the view the death penalty is a punishment, simple. Many of those who find themselves on deathrow is as a result of crimes of passion, usually from the lower rung of the social ladder. The growing number of unsolved murders suggest to BU we maybe hanging the wrong people.
As a small society we need to be more proactive to address situations before they lead to murder. Nowadays we are so quick to fight fire with fire. BU’s position echoes that of current Attorney General Fruendel Stuart, in cases where there is no doubt and the murder is deemed heinous enough by a Court of Law the death penalty should be an option. However the BU household remains ambivalent on the issue of capital punishment.
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