Crime is the number one cause of concern in Jamaica today. The murder toll carried by the Gleaner as at today’s date, April 7, 2010, is 426. That is 426 Jamaicans killed in 97 days including 5 policemen. It has gotten to the point where many of us have become desensitized to the criminal activities that we hear each day. Yesterday however there was one incident which sent chills up and down my spine. An 11 year old girl was abduction (by a family friend), raped, strangled, buried in a shallow grave and her clothes discarded elsewhere. Luckily the child was not dead. She revived in time and had the presence of mind to dig her way out and was able to walk naked in bushes until she found a house where she was helped.

 As a member of the British Commonwealth, capital punishment has been on Jamaica’s statute book forever however we are one of those countries that is abolitionist in practice, although we still retain the death penalty in our penal code. On November 25, 2008 at the House of Representatives and on December 19, 2008, at the Senate, the Jamaican Parliament voted to retain the death penalty. That is to resume capital punishment, as specified in the Offences Against the Person Act. The last execution in Jamaica was on the 18th of February 1988, when Nathan Foster and Stanford Dinnal were hanged for murder.

Now there are many arguments for and against the death penalty. Some say that life imprisonment is not an effective deterrent to criminal behaviour. Others maintain that the death penalty has never been an effective deterrent, that errors sometimes lead to the execution of innocent persons, and that capital punishment is imposed inequitably, mostly on the poor and on racial minorities. Still others say that the death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment and that it violates the right to life.

Personally I don’t consider myself as a violent person but yesterday’s incident have me calling for the death penalty for the brute that could do what he did to a child. To add insult to injury, the perpetrator reportedly drove back to joined the mother and grandmother whom he accompanied to the Constant Spring Police Station to file a missing person's report.(Chat bout bright). Luckily the child was able to positively identify him. Imprisonment will mean him using valuable tax payers (my) money, which I certainly don’t agree with. In fact, I believe the usual methods of electrocution, hanging, gassing, beheading, stoning, shooting or lethal injection is much too good for the creature that did this. We need some extreme, slow methods of excruciating pain that leads to sure death for the likes of him.

The sad thing is that nothing will undo the horror he inflicted on this child. The frightening thing is that the sequence of events appears to be very similar to a previous case. Ananda Deans an 11 year old girl went missing September 17, 2008. She was also abducted, believed raped and buried in a shallow grave. Her clothes were found in a different area from her body. The reports are that the scene where the perpetrator took the police was similar to where Dean’s body was found. Do we have a serial killer on our hands? Maybe the police needs to do some serious digging in the area, who knows what they would find.

My prayers are for that little girl. Obviously God has great things in store for her life and I pray that she will be comforted and strengthened by his love.

Nuff love