THE EDITOR, Sir:PETER ESPEUT was right on target with his interesting commentary on 'The machinery of death'.
Some 32 years ago as a young SDA pastor in Spanish Town, I had to attend a hanging. I had visited with this man for months and he requested that I be there with him on that fateful morning. I will never forget what I saw. The frightened guards handled the condemned man in a gruff and awful manner.
As they marched him off to the gallows, he whispered to me to read the Lord's Prayer. He had said he was innocent and never changed his claim. When asked if he had anything to say, his last words were, "I am going to my grave an innocent man." He then asked me to sing the hymn, 'Nearer My God to Thee' but I confess that the event momentarily robbed me of my voice. I watched in a daze as the noose was placed around his neck and a hood over his head and his legs secured with a leather band as he stood over the trap door on the gallows.
The warden gave the signal and the hangman calmly pulled the lever and the man fell to his death at the end of the rope. I was standing so close to the gallows that I could see the quivering body in its death throes. The doctor then climbed down the stairs and pronounced him dead. The warden remarked to me in the presence of the Superintendent of Police and the doctor that in his many years he had never seen a man hold on to his innocence like that. He said that they would all confess at the last minute even if they had claimed not to be guilty before.
I returned to the prison later that day where the dead convict was given the inglorious 'face down' burial. Let me admit that having not viewed the remains, I had to rely on the word of the burial party who consisted of other inmates as to the position he was in the crude wooden coffin. Three months later I was at the prison on one of my regular visits when the warden ran towards me and exclaimed, "Pastor, S. J. was innocent after all. We have a convict who has confessed to the murder that S.J. was accused of and evidence shows that this man is." Indeed S.J. was innocently dead at the hands of the state. One mistake is too many.
Is there any truth to the rumour that they have never hanged a Caucasian in post-colonial Jamaica and yet a few have been tried for murder? Something to ponder, is it not?
I am etc.,
S. PETER CAMPBELL
speterc@aol.com
Havertown, PA.
Via Go-Jamaica
