MADRID–Oxford criminology professor emeritus Roger Hood says his survey of T&T's views on the death penalty was misinterpreted and only 26 per cent of respondents were truly in favour of the mandatory death penalty–not most of them.
Hood spoke to T&T Guardian after he finished contributing to a panel discussion at yesterday's session on Asia and the Death Penalty at the Anti-Death Penalty Congress at the Palacio Muncipal de Congresos.
The session assessed major issues in states from India to Indonesia, in a region described by the abolitionist movement as a "worldwide bastion of the death penalty."
In the panel talks, Hood spoke about his surveys in other parts of the world. Afterwards, he was asked about the reported high figures in his 2011 survey and whether he would be doing another one in T&T.
Hood said he isn't doing another survey in T&T but had been following the Government's moves to implement the death penalty. He said, however, that there were hopes to follow up his survey's finding with "the politicians."
"It's really become a political issue...I think the work we did there (T&T) really destroyed their case for maintaining a mandatory death penalty in T&T," he said.
"Not only was it shown to be ineffective in bringing cases to court and getting convictions for murder, but it was highly arbitrary in the way it was enforced, and also senior judges and other lawyers we spoke to were not in favour of the mandatory death penalty themselves."
He stressed that only 26 per cent of respondents were in favour of the mandatory death penalty.
Agreeing it was misinterpreted, Hood said: "When we asked people if they thought the death penalty was an appropriate sentence, it was a much lower figure, and the number of people who thought every murder case should be sentenced to death was very small indeed."
Hood also gave the thumbs down to legislation to categorise murder, a course which the Government began, but braked on when it hit an Opposition block in the Parliament months ago. That legislation is now in limbo.
Hood said Britain tried that legal option and failed with it years ago.
"Utter failure–it creates great deal of arbitrariness; who is to say one murder is much worse than another?"
Saying he had been following what the T&T Government had been doing in that area, Hood said: "We in Britain had it in 1957, and by 1965, high court judges said it was a disastrous policy and brought the law into disrepute. It was eventually abolished."
So what were his suggestions on the issue on which the death penalty is expected to be a deterrent?
"Much of the crime involves gangs and people in the drug trade, it seems, of which very few are apprehended and convicted.
"So clearly, whatever effort has to start with much better law enforcement and much better safety for victims and people threatened by violence and death, and you've got to start with a greater concentration on education of the young.
"In my survey we asked people what were the most effective ways of dealing with crime from greater moral education of youths, greater policing and greater attempts to seize drugs or more executions.
"More executions came in at the bottom, so people don't really think more executions will do it. It needs to be thought through again."
T&T attorney and Catholic Commission for Social Justice member Leela Ramdeen, who spoke at Thursday's conference session on the Caribbean, echoed similar suggestions. She said regional governments must focus on preventative measures and rethink strategies to tackle crime, violence, gangs, drug trafficking and small-arms issues.
Ramdeen, who is also on the Greater Caribbean for Life group, encouraged Caribbean states to respond to the UN's call to abolish the death penalty.
Head of the Puerto Rican coalition against the Death Penalty, Carmelo Campos Cruz, said yesterday he hoped the regional abolitionist movement would be able to establish communication with the T&T Government when regional leaders hold a meeting in T&T on October 30.
At Thursday's conference session on the Caribbean, Cruz (head of the Victims' Rights Unit of the Puerto Rico Bar Association) told the audience efforts were being made for a meeting to be held in T&T when the World Day Against the Death Penalty is observed on October 10.
