MITCHELL SCORNS  HENFIELD’S CALL FOR HANGING

The following story was published originally in the Nassau Guardian – Editor

By Teneka Thompson

10 October 2024

Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) Chairman Fred Mitchell yesterday accused Free National Movement (FNM) Senator Darren Henfield of “shameless pandering” over his recent call for executions to resume.

During debate in the Senate on Monday, Henfield decried the recent string of murders that have taken place in New Providence, in particular the killing of a 27-year-old father who was holding his infant in his arms when he was shot in front of his home last week.

Henfield called for hangings of convicted killers to resume and advocated for the Bahamian Court of Appeal to be the country’s final appellate court for murder cases, adding that the Privy Council could be retained to hear appeals in civil matters.

In response, Mitchell questioned why the Minnis administration, which Henfield was a part of, did not enforce the death penalty during its term in office.

Mitchell said, “If they were so convinced that hanging was the answer, why didn’t they do it?”

He also said, “Public figures ought to think carefully before they speak. Senator Henfield knows better than to engage in shameless pandering.

“Last week in the House, I asked the FNM what more do they want us to do? Now we have the answer – hanging – something which they couldn’t figure out [how] to do and something which they know is not now possible in Bahamian jurisprudence and law.”

The death penalty remains on the books for murder.

However, no one has been hanged in The Bahamas since David Mitchell in January 2000 for the 1994 murders of a German couple.

The London-based Privy Council has ruled that executions should only take place for the “worst of the worst” or the “rarest of the rare” category of murder.

In the face of an escalating murder count, FNM Chairman Dr. Duane Sands recently called for National Security Minister Wayne Munroe to resign or be fired.

Ninety-four people have been murdered in The Bahamas so far this year.

Sands said if things continue on this track, it is possible the country could break the record set in 2015 of 146 murders.

Mitchell said the FNM chairman is not qualified to speak on crime.

“Friends, let’s be reasonable, let’s be rational and just think before we speak,” he said.

“Let us invest in our young boys and girls, invest in them, in the future. I am sure that things will get better on the crime front in time.”