Opposition not ready to support hanging measures

Opposition Leader Dr Keith Rowley is not sure if his party will support legislation to bring back hangings as a punishment for murder.

 

Rowley told reporters the opposition will make a decision on the matter after it reviews the measure introduced in the House of Representatives on Friday.

"We have had no reason to change our position on that matter. This has come as a surprise to us, the Prime Minister has pronged this as part of the crime fighting initiative," Rowley told reporters.

 

"Clearly, the Government is of the view that criminals will respond to it, I think it is an admission that the criminals have not feared the coming of the UNC Government and all its threats and so on," Rowley added.

"The problem has not really been an absence of the law, it has been the operations of the courts," the opposition leader said. 

 

Rowley noted that a part of the problem is that appeals still have to go to the Privy Council "where all manner of appeals are available and sympathy, in a way that there is an inherent objection at the Privy Council in terms of the death penalty," Rowley said.

"Changing it to a new law does not automatically bring about the kinds of results the Prime Minister talked about so we have to see what the changes are," he added.

Rowley also said the government has failed to reduce crime, stating that the Government had no new crime plan when it took office. 

 

"What we have are new managers managing what was there before, clearly it's not making any difference," he declared.

 

"It was what the previous government was doing that this Government is continuing with, a little tinker here and a little tinker there. What is shows and proves is that criminals, whoever they are, have no regard for who is occupying the seat of government," he said.

He suggested that government should add more district police and give them the responsibility to account for their districts.