Suraj asks legislators to pass "hanging" bill for little Daniel

"For heinous crimes you are going to pay with your life.”

Tabaquite MP Dr Surujrattan Rambachan made an impassioned plea in the House of Representatives Wednesday to pass the bill to reintroduce hanging as the penalty for convicted killers.

He asked the house to do it for "my little constuituent", in reference to Daniel Guerra, the 8-year-old Gasparillo schoolboy who was abducted on Friday. The child's bloated body was found on Sunday in the Taruba River.

Rambachan said now is the time to “drive the dagger of fear into the hearts of criminals”.

He added, “Every mother and father and brother and sister is crying out for the loss of Daniel Guerra and what can happen to any child,” he said.

“The death of Daniel Guerra has caused me and every one of us to draw a line between good and evil. I ask the Opposition to join the Government to create an environment in which one is deemed to be safe.”

Rambachan insisted that the death penalty works as a deterrent to crime, using statistics from the United States to illustrate his point.

“Justice must be swift. Drastic action.” he said. “For heinous crimes you are going to pay with your life.”

Rambachan recalled those children who had been violently killed in TT in recent years — Hope Arismandez, Emily Amy Anamunthodo, Sean Luke, Tecia Henry, Roshmi Ramdial and Quantia Hyndman.

“Children are being killed as an act of revenge for the actions of adults. We have reached new frontiers with the execution of children.” He urged MPs to look at the child-killings and use them as an inspiration to support the bill.

The Foreign Affairs Minister said, “Hanging is the law of Trinidad and Tobago” and gave the assurance that unlike what happened with the hanging of Glen Ashby under a past PNM regime, the People's Partnership would act according to the law.