For the second time in 30 years, Parliament is considering whether the penalty should be retained in the Constitution. It was kept on the books by a thin margin in 1978, and it seems likely that Parliament will vote to retain capital punishment again in a vote due Tuesday.

Last week, Nobel Prize laureate and South African cleric Desmond Tutu warned the Government against retaining the death penalty, claiming it could be used as a tool to oppress racial minorities and the poor.

Amnesty holds an identical views, adding that while it understands that the country is bent on reversing one of the highest per capita murder rates, the death penalty would not be the best option for the island given the state of its justice system.

"Given the unlikelihood of ever being brought before the courts, it is highly implausible that before committing a crime a criminal would consider the risk of being hanged and would refrain from wrong-doing," the lobby said in a release yesterday.

Irrevocable error

Amnesty added that the retention of capital punishment sends a message to society that killing is allowed and stated that, moreover, the state runs the risk of committing an irrevocable error.

"Country after country, including Jamaica, has inflicted the death penalty upon those innocent of the crime for which they were condemned," the lobbyists countered. "Numerous studies have also shown that it tends to be applied discriminatorily on grounds of race and class. In a country like Jamaica, where the criminal justice system is deeply flawed and corruption is rife throughout different institutions, how can the public have confidence that the state will not kill innocent people?"

Amnesty stated that Government should instead join the international trend of thought that holds that executions serve no useful purpose as the world approaches the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. It said the state should instead focus on implementing the recently concluded strategic review of the police force and reforming its justice system.

Hanging by the neck until one dies is the method of capital punishment carried out in Jamaica. However, no prisoner on death row has been hanged since 1988.

During the debate in Parliament on the issue Tuesday, Finance Minister Audley Shaw proposed that the method be amended to death by electrocution or lethal injection.