Crime and Punishment in The Bahamas

by Sidney Sweeting, DDS

In this recent blog I expressed my frustration about the sentencing of an adult male who raped a young girl aged 6. He not only raped her but kept her in an abandoned car overnight and at one point punched her in the mouth. The judge who imposed the sentence of six years with two sessions of “the cat” expressed her concern about the sentence of only six years imprisonment because “it was his first offense” therefore that was the maximum allowed by the court.

I am sure that there must be a number of crimes that begs for the attention of the Attorney General with regard to the punishment that is allowed by the courts but I focus on this particular crime because it has become so prevalent. On just one day last week there were three cases reported of the rape of under age girls. If we have not already been classified as a nation of perverts we are very close.

In the United States the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers released a paper with the heading “Louisiana High Court condones death as constitutional punishment for rape”. The paper states, in part:

“Given the appalling nature of the crime, the severity of the harm inflicted on the victim, and the harm imposed on society, the death penalty is not an excessive penalty for the crime of rape when the child is under the age of twelve years.”

There are human rights activists who will always be there to speak up for the criminal and pleading for his rights but there are crimes so heinous, so dastardly, that the criminal should surrender his rights when they are committed.

Whether the death of one or several rapists will serve as a deterrent should not be a consideration. It is simply a matter of allowing for the punishment to fit the crime.