“For far too long, the criminal element has had the upper hand, while honest, hardworking Bahamians have been forced to live in fear,”

So right.... the criminal element definitely has the upper-hand.... they're all in the HOA

You do the math: with the murder rate of 150, that means 1,500. With a conviction rate for murder of around 60%, some 900 convicts will be in jail every 10 years serving sentences for murder. If the sentence ranges from say 10 years to life imprisonment you can see the enormous tax burden this will have on the country. But of more concern is that you grow a prison population to near 1,000 murderers. What happens if there is a jail break, (or several) and these persons get loose in the community and decide they are not going back to jail (alive). What is obvious is if nothing is done to stop the killings, the problem will get worse. So if no capital punishment what are the alternatives?

Agreed. With so many hardened criminals in our prison now it is only a matter of time before there is a prison break.

Comrades up them Shirley Street stairs at the Tribune, I sure hope you will not closeout comments that might get rough when reacting to the CJ's comments. After all, if you dare put your own words on public trial saying such highly controversial things then CJ or not, you shouldn't be expecting for the media to closeout readers rights to use the same public forums to talk their freedom of speech.
Just saying cause you seems run scared when comes messing with judges being I intend to very much test how much you as a newspaper does really respect all we's bloggers freedom of speeches?

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Ya know what... Woodes Rodgers came here, said if i ein hang all dese bey dem, nuttun guh change... so he come out say look here, i guh hang all a y'all, if u ein want to get hang... den i got a job for you.... Long story short..... pirate problem solved!!! (at least during Rodgers lifetime.... )

What? I believe you're trying to say that Woodes Rodgers used hanging to end piracy... Was he successful?

I know people are scared, but we can't hang our way out of this problem.

I think many would consider him our most successful Governor. He did end the Pirates Republic (the previous government of these islands) by hanging and the threat of hanging. I think that's pretty well documented. His success may have only been short-term... but Rodgers couldn't live forever, so i'd say yes, during his lifetime, quite successful

Darold Miller read the stats on the national PLP show today .............. there were EIGHT murders in 1973 ............... we had 149 (+ unclassifieds) in 2015 ............ the Police just need to create a new M-O ............. when you catch a criminal with an illegal/handgun, just kill him on arrest or sight ............. the criminals will soon get the message ......... its the only practical solution now ................ the Bahamian court system is either unwilling or unable to deal with the explosion of illegal guns in the country today

So are you suggesting the police become the judge, bench and jury? What happens if the police wants a certain person dead? Let me guess: he kills them and plants a handgun on them?

You saying that don't already happen? I guess people who mysteriously dead while in police custody wasn't killed by police, they just up and dead....

The fact of the matter is: the civilized world is moving away from capital punishment as an option. Statistics prove that it simply does not act as a deterrent. What it would do however is reduce the financial burden on the country of housing convicted murderers. Even if you believe killing another human can be morally justified, and I struggle with that, it would simply not work in the Bahamas because our judicial system is so dysfunctional it would take forever to convict, sentence and then go through the myriad levels of appeal. I doubt there will ever be another state sponsored hanging in The Bahamas because there is no political will to go against the flow of modern thinking. Bran McCartney's plea to resurrect capital punishment is political posturing. Bran is a lawyer and knows full well it ain't gonna happen. It makes a good headline though especially when you are struggling to be relevant.

Honestman ............. the civilized/developed/first world may be moving away from capital punishment, but tell the Americans that .............. how many states carried out death penalty in 2015???? ................... or is the great USA not "civilized"??????????

The problem in this country is what it is and always will be,Politicians are looking out for their own selfish agendas by not hanging,they don't hang the nogood murdering scum because its Mrs Lucy good son,so we all punish because of their selfish agendas,you see any of those pompous suckers living in the inner city?or their kids attending public school?no they don't they wont be caught dead among the regular people,the first oppressors were white,now they are back in the form of black men our own who treat us worst than their predecessors bunch of lowlife leeching suckers.

This PLP government makes the Bay St. Boys look good that is for sure. Bahamians are letting this criminal organization plunder at will. Ah well you only get what you deserve, suckers!

It is called **Capital Punishment not capital deterrent** and that is what it is the ultimate **PUNISHMENT!** These killers today have no fear of Fox Hill or any other punishment and that is why they are so bold and brazen. Why must we the honest and hardworking have to pay for a mad dog killer to be put up in Fox Hill to laze around all day chatting on his cell phone? If you have a dog that bites it is put down, these killers are rabid dogs that need to be put down!

They putting down people in the streets too often. i say put them down

We cannot hang ourselves out of this problem. (I'm aware that I'm in the minority but stand by those thoughts nonetheless). If we hang everyone on death row, who shall we blame when killings continue?

Execute corruption, resurrect accountability, and re-evaluate the culture that glorifies conflict and the "Jungless" mentality.

What's the alternative to hanging? Help them find Jesus? Have a discussion circle twice a day and let them vent?

If you aren't going to hang them at least use them for experiments!

At least the future murders won't be committed by re-offenders.... which i believe is part of the problem with our inflated homicide rate... many of these killers have killed already

Let's not forget that there are hired or contact killers in the country. Persons who kill people they don't know for no other reason than they get paid to do it. Think about that.

Friends, I have read all of yours comments so far, in fact, I scrolled back and read through them slowly to see if I could note the quintessential terminology, which if applied substantially, it may assist as much to resolves the issues of what is being complained about: MURDERS.

Not even Mr. Bran McCartney noted it in his comments; which is, LEADERSHIP.

No amount of hanging, and whatever you wish to suggest, can supplant the need for inspiring leadership. The people are only doing what they perceive their leaders in LEADERSHIP are all about. Leaders, in political leadership, are to put forward ideals to the people which serves to inspire their following their ideals. As it now stands, and as taken from the above comments, killing, in the form of hanging, symbolizes, to most of you, a solution. This is also the mind of this 'leader' (per se). I then suspect, he is your leader; and therefore, he can only lead the people to a place of his own experience, where he is at.

Is it any wonder now to any of us where this primitive and impulsive instinct to murder comes from?

Yes... let us face it. It comes from our leaders in POLITICAL LEADERSHIP!!! KILLING, BY WAY OF HANGING YOUR CITIZENS, IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR THE RESPONSIBILITY of a leader to get in the front of the people and to inspire them to live by a standard and code of civil conduct. Otherwise, if you think you are leading and happen to turn around and no one is following, you are then only out for a walk.

Godson 'Nicodemus' Johnson

I agree with you Godson, but i think inspiring leadership in these islands is but an intangible dream these days.......

so people are looking for practical, albeit dramatic, solutions for the society we live in. I think people support the fight against ISIS..... in that fight people are killed. I think retrospectively we support our vets in the role they played in WWII against Hitler.... again, people were killed.... I look through the Old Testament... many examples of the same.... What about leadership in those examples? Is it bad leadership to oppose violent threats in a hard-line and aggressive manner? When at war is it bad leadership to enter a battle where lives will be lost?

I understand people have bleeding hearts about Capital Punishment, considering it murder. It is under certain perspectives murder. But under that perspective being arrested is also kidnapping and paying taxes is also extortion....... The difference is that the gov't is preforming these things for the safety and betterment of all society

TruePeople - I would go along with your argument if it could be shown that capital punishment is an effective deterrent. It isn't - just look at the state of Texas as an example. Decisive and sometimes brutal action is sometimes required, as in the case of the war against ISIS, but it can only be justified if it produces a positive outcome. Capital punishment does not produce the desired outcome - it simply makes citizens feel better.

Bro Proud .............. punishment is punishment .......... if it deters, that is a bonus. The moral of the story is, if the crime is punishable by death, it is what it is ........... but we have become caught up in the "humaneness" of the punishment and not observing the spirit of the law

Tell Branville to take his jerry curl and go sit down.