Nov. 9
TRINIDAD:
DEATH BY HANGING----Man guilty of raping and murdering Pixie, 16...and killing
aunt, 40
The mother of murdered teenager Pixie Lakhan said she was satisfied with the
guilty verdicts passed on murderer Paul Vincent yesterday.
Vincent was found guilty before the San Fernando First Criminal Court of raping
and killing Pixie Lakhan, 16, and her aunt Taramatie Toolsie, 40.
Surujdaye Lakhan, Pixie's mother, told reporters she had been "hoping and
praying that when the matter started it would finish with this decision".
A soft-spoken Lakhan said, "I feel happy that justice is served... Life goes on
as usual. You can't forget things, but it has to go on."
She said it should be ensured the death penalty is carried out.
"I think they should bring back hangings... In Trinidad, we have too many
murders and unnecessary killings. It (the death penalty) might not solve the
problem, but maybe it will ease it," she said.
Toolsie's son, Ramdeen Beepath, cried as he spoke to reporters following the
verdict, on which the jury deliberated for 3 hours.
He too called for the death penalty to be implemented.
"They sitting down in jail and taxpayers just minding them... This man took
happiness away from me. My mother did not even get to hold her grandchild. Just
a month again and my mother would have gotten to hold her grandchild.
"The Thursday (before she died), I took the ultrasound (report) and just not to
surprise her over the phone, I say Friday I'll tell her. That day she went
missing... You know happiness is right there, but yet it so far," Beepath said.
He told reporters the verdict did not take away the pain.
"It's hard. My mother was a single parent. We were real close. This man have a
wife and child, and check what this man did.
"I am glad it is over. They say time heals, but this kind of time, I don't
know. It is still raw inside. When you have a special bond with your mother,
you have a special bond," he said.
Pixie Lakhan and Toolsie were murdered weeks apart, in 2005, near their homes
in Siparia.
Pixie's remains and belongings were found near a carat tree a short distance
from her home a month after she went missing.
Toolsie never made it to her janitorial job.
She went missing 3 days before her decomposing body was found on tyres and bags
down a precipice.
Vincent was seen with cuts on his body following Toolsie's killing, and it was
the State's case he gave officers confession statements into the murders.
Justice Mark Mohammed, who heard the trial which began last May, yesterday
thanked the 12-member jury for their service in the double murder trial he
described as "one of the heaviest and most demanding in our courts for several
years".
Following the guilty verdicts, Mohammed told Vincent he will be taken to the
place of execution and suffer death by hanging. Vincent did not reply.
Vincent's mother, Jean Campbell, told reporters outside the court, "I leave it
in the hands of God."
She said she spoke to her son following the verdicts and he was solemn. "He
didn't say anything much," she said.
(source: Trinidad Express)
UNITED KINGDOM:
Capital punishment should remain a relic of Britain's past; Forget the moral
arguments - practical considerations render it ludicrous
Today marks the 15th anniversary of the abolition of capital punishment in the
United Kingdom. With crime a continual bugbear of the media, there is a
persistent debate regarding whether the criminal justice system is too soft on
those that transgress the law of the land, and undoubtedly capital punishment
forms part of this debate. So though Britain, in common with virtually all
Western nations, has abandoned the practice of sentencing people to death,
would it be a viable idea to resurrect it?
I am a big advocate of direct democracy, and still am in principle, but capital
punishment would be one issue where I would almost certainly disagree with the
majority of people. I feel quite confident to assert that if there was a
referendum on the issue then the majority of people would vote in favour of the
return of capital punishment. There is no doubt that the public perception is
that criminals are treated with excessive leniency in Britain, and that a
tougher regime would deter crime.
This is profoundly misguided for several reasons. If capital punishment, a
highly extreme policy which essentially involves state-sanctioned murder, is
remotely justifiable then it must be shown to be a deterrent, to be practically
workable, and for the systems in place that administrate it to be infallible.
Let's test out the veracity of those three elements within the context of our
current society.
Firstly, we already have a Western example to consider in which capital
punishment presently takes place. 32 American states currently sentence people
to death. 7 of the top 10 states in America in terms of murder rates currently
operate the death penalty, namely Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina,
Alabama, Arizona, Missouri and Tennessee. It's not hard to get hold of this
information because it's openly available on a pro-death penalty website!
So I think we can put the deterrent argument to bed.
In the case of the United States, it is well-known that those who are to be
sentenced to death linger on so-called death rows for years; in fact in 2010,
the average was 15 years. These are the American Justice Department's own
figures. This is hardly surprising; in such a litigious society it is
inevitable that any death sentence will result in a huge legal tug-of-war. This
almost without exception turns out to be more expensive than simply life
imprisonment, as well as putting an incalculable strain on those who live in a
constant hiatus regarding their own existence, while tolerating conditions that
most people wouldn't enforce upon animals.
Many people might argue that the conditions that murderers live in are no cause
for concern. Except when they turn out to be innocent, of course.
Between 1950 and 1953, when Britain executed an average of 17 people per annum,
four individuals were wrongly sentenced to death. Three have since been
exonerated, and one has been pardoned. As far as we know, the other 64 people
who were executed had committed the crimes of which they were accused. But I
use the expression 'as far as we know' advisedly. There will always be doubt
regarding the criminal justice system, there will always be mistakes, and there
will always be the possibility that evidence will be uprooted which casts new
light on a particular verdict.
In the United States, nearly 150 individuals have been completely exonerated of
their crimes after being executed. In addition, it is claimed that nearly 40
further people have been executed despite evidence of innocence or serious
doubt about guilt, which the state refused to take into consideration. So
that's nearly 200 people who should be living, who have potentially done
nothing wrong, who have been killed by the state, which also proclaims itself
to be moral arbiter of what is right and wrong.
This simply cannot be accepted in a civilised society.
If one asks the average person in Britain their opinion of the government, the
court system and the police, it is almost certain that one will receive a
negative response. It therefore rather flies in the face of logic to give these
people the power to decide who lives and who dies, regardless of the moral
implications. Which are, needless to say, immense.
(source: Christopher Morris is a regular contributor to Yahoo on television,
cinema, video games, technology and politics; Yahoo News)
NIGERIA:
Lawmaker advocates death penalty for rapists
The Kano lawmaker says life in prison is not sufficient for convicted rapists.
A member of the Kaduna State House of Assembly, Muhammad Ali, on Friday called
for the amendment of existing laws on rape, to provide for death penalty on
anyone convicted of the offence.
Mr. Ali, who represents Kawo constituency, made the call in an interview with
the News Agency of Nigeria in Kaduna.
He noted that Section 283 of the Penal Code Law only provided a maximum of life
imprisonment for convicted rapists, adding that the law should be amended to
carry the maximum penalty.
According to him, most rapists ended up with lighter sentence due to bottle
necks in court processes.
"Rapists are not treated the way they should be treated due to one reason or
the other in the enforcement of the law."
"Life imprisonment is not even enough for them; anybody caught raping a child
or woman should face the firing squad. It is the only way to safeguard and
sanitise the society," the lawmaker contended.
Mr. Ali attributed the increasing cases of rape in the country to negligence on
the part of parents, urging them to take their parental responsibilities more
seriously.
He said children, especially teenagers, must be protected against vagabonds and
other miscreants, as well as provided with necessary guidance to manage the
challenges of growing up, so as to become better and useful citizens.
The lawmaker said he was working on a legislation that would protect the rights
of rape victims and ensure that convicted rapists were appropriately
sanctioned.
(source: Premium Times)
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