Former Jamaican National Security Minister, Robert Montague, on Tuesday, called for the resumption of hanging in an impassioned plea, as the House of Representatives debated and passed the Firearms (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 2022.
Based on the provisions of the Act, persons in Jamaica convicted of gun crimes face a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years and up to life in prison.
But, with the rampant criminality in the country and with murders averaging in the region of 1,300 per year, Montague believes the punitive legislation, as described by National Security Minister Dr Horace Chang, does not go far enough.
“We must resume hanging without delay,” he declared during his contribution to the debate, while telling his fellow parliamentarians to vote to remove it from the law books if they believe otherwise.
In justifying the call for a resumption of hanging, Montague suggested that it would be a deterrent to Jamaica’s high murder rate.
He pointed to an analysis of the murder figures that show that in the 25 years from 1962 when Jamaica became an independent nation, to 1987, some 7,447 murders were committed in the country at an average of 297 persons per year or 14.1 murders per 100,000 inhabitants.
