PRIME MINISTER P.J. Patterson has indicated his willingness to allow government legislators to vote, according to conscience, whether to retain or abolish the death penalty, rather than adhere to party position.
"I think the time has come for that," the prime minister recently told Gleaner editors at Vale Royal.
Parliament held a conscience vote on the issue in 1979 and decided to retain the death penalty, which Mr. Patterson voted to abolish.
Twenty-five years later, Mr. Patterson says he is still personally against the death penalty and believes that "We should be living in a society where the death penalty no longer need be applied."
But he quickly adds: "I recognise, however, that I presently preside over a society where stemming violent crime is of the utmost urgency and importance."
The prime minister has disclosed that he has invited the new Opposition leader to discuss, among other issues 'if the death penalty should be (still) applicable, and, if so, for what offences?'
BI-PARTISAN TALKS
He says, based on the outcome of the bi-partisan discussions, Parliament will be asked to determine the status of laws permitting capital punishment. Attorney-General A.J. Nicholson and Opposition Spokesman on Justice, Delroy Chuck have commenced the bi-partisan talks.
The Patterson administration has publicly expressed annoyance at decisions by the British-based Privy Council, Jamaica's final appellate court, which have, essentially crippled efforts to carry out executions in Jamaica.
Specifically, the administration is seeking to remedy the problem by having a two-thirds majority of both houses of Parliament vote to amend the Constitution. This, Government argues, will insulate the Jamaican legislature from the paralysing effect of rulings by the Privy Council against imposition of the death penalty.
One such ruling which has irritated Caribbean governments, concerns the case of death row convict Neville Lewis. The Privy Council has ruled that a judge should decide the punishment for a death row convict, rather than the automatic application of the penalty for capital and non-capital murder, as stipulated in the laws of Jamaica.
In the coming debate to amend the Constitution, Mr. Patterson says Parliament will have to consider "whether we are going to be amending our Constitution as Barbados has done, to, in effect, allow the decisions of our legislature to be given effect in accordance with the law."
It is the recent ruling by the British-based tribunal, reproving the method of introducing a new appellate court, the Caribbean Court of Justice, that has propelled the Government and Opposition to seek consensus on constitutional issues.
