ST LUCIA. AUTHORITIES WANT SPEEDY EXECUTION OF CONVICTED MURDERERS

St Lucia's National Security Minister Calixte George said that speedy executions of condemned murders would have a deterrent effect on violent crime.
His comments followed a daylight murder where a young man was chased by three men and gunned down in full glare of the public in the country’s capital. The murder brought to 15 the number of homicides so far in 2005.
"We believe that we should continue with executions and the population believes that as well, but the law is such that we have a lot of legal hurdles to clear, especially now in the United Kingdom, the philosophy on capital punishment has changed, and with our links to the Privy Council it has had an effect on the Caribbean as well," George said.
Police Commissioner Ausbert Regis had recently suggested that the issue of executions be revisited in light of an increase in violent crime. He said criminals were becoming bolder and there was need to "raise the bar" in terms of penalties.
However, George contended that while Government had raised the bar, the penalties including the death penalty, were sometimes not imposed.
He said this represented a hindrance, and as far as Government was concerned "speedy executions will serve as a deterrent to violent crime".
But human rights lawyer Mary Francis dismissed the claim as nothing but "a simplistic cop-out".
She said that while she understood Government's anxiety to do something about violent crime, there was still no correlation between increases in murder and the death penalty.
"Certainly in countries where they have abolished the death penalty there have been decreases in the murder rate, so there is still no scientific basis for his argument," she said
Francis said that the right to life was absolute and was the most essential form of human rights without which, no other form of human right could be enjoyed.