(Trinidad Express) Works Minister Jack Warner yesterday launched a death penalty campaign that will see his supporters in every part of the country collecting signatures for a petition calling for the enforcement of hanging.
The petition will be laid in Parliament and given to Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley, Warner said.
Warner launched his “A Fisherman’s Cry” petition at his Chaguanas West constituency office. He was flanked by vice-chairman of the Congress of the People Vernon De Lima and Deputy Chaguanas Mayor Gopaul Boodan.
The theme, he said, was chosen in light of the murders of three fishermen last month, two of whom lived in his constituency and the third in Longdenville where Warner grew up.
Rapundai Ramsaran, the mother of two of the murdered fishermen, also attended the launch. She broke down in tears, saying she wanted justice and called for her sons’ killers to be executed.
Warner said the citizens were being “slaughtered by a handful of ruthless deviants and misfits who refuse to work for an honest dollar but choose to make criminal enterprise their career”.
He said the law as it existed “is making a mockery of the law”.
“That is the effect of the situation where the law books prescribe a lawful punishment for a crime, but it is a punishment that cannot be carried out against the offender. The result is that the criminals are laughing at the justice system. They know that they have cheated and beaten the hangman, even before they can be caught and convicted,” he said.
Warner said when criminals beat the system, they were heroes in their gangs, and in the last ten years, 3,500 citizens have been killed. He said, “A check of the prison reveals that almost every single one of the less than one per cent of murderers apprehended and convicted has escaped the prescribed lawful punishment by exploiting gaping holes in the law.”
Warner said the Constitutional (Amendment) (Capital Offences) Bill was brought to Parliament last year but defeated after the People’s National Movement (PNM) voted against the legislation.
Warner said over the next six weeks, volunteers will go to all 41 constituencies seeking signatures to the petition. He also said thousands of jerseys would be distributed.
Warner also urged supporters to write letters to the editors of various newspapers and call into radio and television programmes.
The petition calls upon every Member of Parliament to “get serious with fixing the laws concerning the enforcement of the death penalty, including addressing the issue of lengthy delays with petitions to the human rights bodies”.
De Lima said the country should suspend its dealings with human rights bodies for five years in order to enforce the death penalty.
“The law-abiding citizens are not carrying out the death penalty, but the criminals are. And when the criminals come to your homes, there is no mercy. There is no (human rights) petition,” said De Lima.
“What is taking place in Trinidad and Tobago today with these murderers is war. And we have to come out and fight these criminals like is war. You cannot let them feel that they can master you,” he said.
