The moral case against capital punishment | Trinidad Express Newspaper | Commentaries

10.2.12

The moral case against capital punishment | Trinidad Express Newspaper | Commentaries: In Part I of this series I suggested that there are certain issues on the death penalty that need to be discussed. These are: (1) Morality (2) Constitutionality (3) Deterrence (4) Retribution or Revenge (5) Mistakes (6) Income level and/or Race (7) Quality of legal representation. In that article I discussed Morality, Constitutionality and Deterrence and in Part II I discussed Retribution or Revenge and Mistakes. In this article I shall discuss Income Level and/or Race and Quality of Legal Representation together. I shall also make some concluding comments.

Income level and /or Race and

Quality of Legal Representation.

In my view the overwhelming issue in Trinidad and Tobago is income level. There can be little doubt that the vast majority of those who commit murder and therefore are sentenced to death are from lower income households in depressed areas.

Any factors of race or ethnicity are related to urban or rural demographic factors and these are related to the way in which this country became populated.