Justice and Bahamian Law

Sidney Sweeting, DDS

Throughout history and in some parts of the world today judgements for crimes have been imposed from an eye for an eye to cutting off the hand that committed the crime. Crime, punishment and morality are the threads that weave an uncertain fabric in our justice systems. In later years we have gone from conservatism to liberalism to questioning whether any of the methods were right.

Most Bahamians are now convinced that the time is right to insist that our Government make every effort to change our laws pertaining to justice so that we can be certain that the punishment will fit the crime

No longer do we want to hear that a six year old female has been brutally raped and the sexual pervert was sentenced to six years because 'that was all that the law would allow." No longer do we want to hear that a convicted murderer has been released on parole "because we have to consider that he has served 18 of his 50 years". No longer do we want to hear that a serial rapist has been released on parole before he has been castrated. Let the parole committee first ask themselves if they would like to have him as a neighbor.

This country needs to be done with pandering to the criminals and give them their due so that the rest of us who want to live in a civil society can get on with it.

Enough is enough.