IN an impassioned speech in the House of Assembly last Friday, Shadow Public Safety Minister Maxwell Burgess called on the Government to face Bermuda's epidemic of violent crimes.

Mr. Burgess warned that should the Progressive Labour Party fail to bring about zero-tolerance legislation against perpetrators of such crimes, he would be "prepared to go it alone to bring an amendment to reinstate capital punishment".

Under pressure from Britain to end capital and corporal punishment, the House of Assembly voted to abolish hanging and flogging in December 1999, after much debate. The House voted 19-13 to abolish the death penalty, last used in 1977 when two men, Erskine (Buck) Burrows and Larry Tacklyn, were hanged for murder (Burrows was convicted of the murder of Police Commissioner George Duckett in 1972 as well as the 1973 murders of Governor Sir Richard Sharples and his aide-de-camp Captain Hugh Sayers and the murders of Mark Roe and Victor Rego at the Shopping Centre on Victoria Street; Tacklyn was convicted only of the supermarket killings).

In 1999, the ruling PLP supported the controversial proposal to abolish capital punishment, despite an Opposition United Bermuda Party poll indicating that two-thirds of Bermudians supported the death penalty.

This divisive issue was the only one in the history of Bermuda other than that of Independence from Britain to spark a Referendum. The abolition was required by Britain under its White Paper on relations with its Overseas Territories.

"The concept of an eye for an eye is barbaric, and if we really enforced that, everyone would be walking around blind," then-Health Minister Nelson Bascome said at the time, supporting the move to abolish capital and corporal punishment.

However, then-Opposition Leader Pamela Gordon was reticent, attacking the PLP Government for rushing to abolish the death penalty and corporal punishment without coming up with alternative deterrents to crime. "What's wrong with the Government stepping back for a year or so, so they are able to put in place proper sentencing, a proper rehabilitation programme and half-way houses?" Ms Gordon asked.

Now, five years later, with violent crime and sexual assaults at an all-time high in Bermuda, the debate regarding the death penalty has been reopened by Maxwell Burgess.

However, according to UBP MP Trevor Moniz, Mr. Burgess' threat to produce an amendment reinstating capital punishment is a "total red herring", designed purely "to get a headline".

While Mr. Moniz is in favour of capital punishment in the most severe cases, he claims that reinstating capital punishment in Bermuda would be impossible.

"There might be some support but it'll never happen," Mr. Moniz said. "Those of us in favour of capital punishment in certain circumstances understand that it'll never happen. But it may get you a cheap headline and I give credit to Maxwell as a savvy politician, who got a front-page picture and a headline. He knows it'll never happen as well as I do."

Mr. Moniz explained that Bermuda is subject to the laws of the European Union. Because we answer directly to the Privy Council as our last court of appeal, we could not simply reinstate the death penalty without permission from Britain.

"The problem with capital punishment is that Western nations have moved away from it," Mr. Moniz said. "The particular difficulty with that is with respect to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights under the United Nations together with the European Union's position on it. We're not members but we're associated with Great Britain, a member of the EU, so that brings all sorts of problems in that context."

He continued: "I presume what Maxwell is trying to do is piggyback on this West Indian move where they have removed the Privy Council as the last court of appeal so they can exercise capital punishment.

"They have serious crime problems in the West Indies. They've got Third World problems. I'm sympathetic to them because I believe in capital punishment in the most severe cases."

The last time a "severe case" resulted in the death penalty was in 1977. However, it took 22 years to remove capital punishment from Bermudian legislature. Mr. Moniz explained why it took so long to abolish the death penalty despite the fact that it was never used.

"There was no huge move to get rid of it," he said. "There were a couple of smaller moves. Some members of the UBP were in favour of getting rid of capital punishment and some were in favour of keeping it, most notably Harry Viera. There were several internal struggles in the UBP over whether to retain capital punishment or whether to abolish it. I think some of the votes were quite tense.

"It was politically sensitive in the 1970s. These guys had gone out and murdered the Police Commissioner, the Governor, his ADC, and people at the supermarket, and there was a broader group of 'revolutionary' types.

"What they were trying to achieve no one was quite sure, but it became politically sensitive and there was civil unrest. As a result it was never used after that. A lot of people never believed in it anyway. Even though I supported capital punishment in the most serious cases, I recognised that we didn't use it anyway.

"Was I just fooling myself? Should we keep capital punishment if we're not going to use it? You're stuck in this crazy position."

Mr. Moniz, a lawyer, accepts that reinstating the death penalty would be impossible and maintains that the PLP's "ambivalent approach" to crime would mean that even if capital punishment was legal, it would remain unused, just as it was between the last hangings in 1977 and its abolition in 1999.

"You can't reinstate capital punishment. What's the point? We wouldn't use it anyway," Mr. Moniz said. "If you can't get a conviction, who are you going to put to death? These people couldn't get a conviction anyway. You know what would happen in a jury.

"If they know the defendant is facing death, they won't convict him! They'll say, 'Oh, I know Little Johnny's auntie. I don't want her holding it against me that I found her little nephew guilty and he's going to be put to death.'"

According to Mr. Moniz, Maxwell Burgess was trying to make this particular point when he made his announcement on Friday.

"He was generally talking about law and order. He's trying for a bit of political judo on the UBP on my line which I've always used to accuse the PLP of being soft on crime," Mr. Moniz said. "Maxwell is picking up on that and carrying on from what I started.

"In my view, the PLP are very ambivalent about their approach to crime, because they see that a lot of the working class in Bermuda are black and they're a black party. They don't want to alienate their core black support so they rush around trying to keep those people happy.

"They're stuck between the approach of the more conservative members of the community, both black and white, who believe in law and order, and the idea that, 'No, no, these people are only in jail because of their personal circumstances and because they've had a lack of opportunities in life, and therefore we should be soft on them.'

"This is a mistake in thought in most cases. Maxwell knows this puts the PLP in a difficult position because their approach to crime is ambivalent: should we be tough on crime or should we be soft on people?"

He continued: "On Friday, the Court of Appeal gave a year in prison to Nelson Bascome's son, which was a proper sentence. The original judge had given him a manifestly wrong sentence which wasn't severe enough.

"We do have a problem in this community and we have to continue to deal with crime in a proper fashion. I'm not saying you have to go overboard but you have to be firm. I think the new Chief Justice (Richard Ground) is going to show that justice should be swift and firm without being excessive."

Mr. Moniz cited examples of recent violent crimes at Wellington Oval and Paget Ice Queen as problems the PLP and the justice system have yet to deal with.

"The real issue in this community is law and order, and the real issue the PLP have to face is that they have an ambivalent approach to it that makes them soft on crime," he said. "I think Maxwell's hit on a good point, that there's a problem in this community of lawlessness.

"You saw it at Wellington Oval and you saw it with the murder at Ice Queen, where you get a crime committed in the sight of hundreds of people who know the individuals involved and then they tell you they didn't see anything and they don't know anybody.

"If a witness sees a crime they have an obligation to go to court and give a true testimony as to what they saw. What I've referred to as a pandemic problem in Bermuda is that nobody wants to do their civic duty. Everybody wants to walk away from it. Nobody wants to give evidence.

"The big problem is deep-rooted, with people not wanting to get involved or give evidence. It's a small community. This is a classic problem in a small town and it's a problem here."

Mr. Moniz called on everyone from judges to jurors to step up and face Bermuda's crime epidemic.

"Law and order in this community is a serious problem because people aren't doing their jobs," he claimed. "Some of the judges aren't doing their jobs, the juries and witnesses aren't doing their jobs, and the police could do a better job.

"It's throughout the system. I give credit to the new Chief Justice, he's trying to get on top of it. I think some of the other people are trying as well. But there are other people who aren't holding up the appropriate standard."

While Mr. Moniz understands Mr. Burgess' frustration with the current climate of violence and his subsequent desire to reinstate capital punishment, he berated the Shadow Public Safety Minister for his lack of "consistency or follow-through".

"Bringing back the death penalty is a total red herring to get a headline," Mr. Moniz said. "Maxwell wants to dance to two different tunes at the same time which is awfully difficult. He wants to say, 'The poor black males, the poor black males,' and they're the ones out there doing all this.

"If you saw Wellington Oval, how many black males were involved? There was nobody else involved except black males!

"If you're going to be tough on crime, you're going to be tough on black males," he continued. "Are you prepared to do that when you're rushing around saying we need to be soft on black males? You have to get your message clear. Maxwell's problem with getting out there and issuing a message is that he dances to all these different tunes when it suits his purpose.

"He makes people have amnesia and they can't remember what he said the week before! He's not consistent in his message, unlike me. As Churchill said, it's the hobgoblin of little minds. Maxwell has no consistency or follow-through on these issues. He throws it out there in a headline but next week he'll be on about something else."

While Mr. Moniz attacked Maxwell Burgess' threat to bring an amendment reinstating capital punishment as a "red herring", his fellow UBP MP John Barritt applauded Mr. Burgess for reopening the death penalty debate.

"He's not the only one who'd like to bring it back," Mr. Barritt said. "He reflects a sentiment not only within our party but in the community. The challenge is how to do it. Clearly if people want to do it they've got to change the Government.

"Even then, there are going to be some challenges in view of the position which the UK takes with respect to capital punishment. Even though it was on the books here for some time, it was never even used since 1977. I have to say I'm inclined to agree with those who say that, if capital punishment is a deterrent, it's only a deterrent if it's used in appropriate cases."

He continued: "My feeling on that is that it can act as a deterrent and ought to be reserved for egregious cases, like they do in the United States, where they have different degrees of murder. If you do get capital punishment it's for first degree murder ? that is, premeditated, particularly where it's on law enforcement or prison officials or anyone in authority. To be realistic, we appear to have an uphill battle on that. In my view, it's worth a try."

Like Mr. Moniz, Mr. Barritt believes that the PLP has not lived up the promises it made on re-election last year to toughen up on crime.

"Maxwell's speech wasn't just about capital punishment, but about the need for us to do something about law and order in this country," Mr. Barritt explained. "We're not going to have any unless we have penalties ? and penalties that bite!

"There's a real concern that there isn't a political will in this country to get on with what's needed. Rehabilitation is a good thing but first of all you have to get the people who commit crimes behind bars, and you have to show them you're serious in terms of having stiff penalties. The carrot-and-the-stick approach only works if you have a stick!"

Mr. Barritt believes the PLP needs to punish offenders in what may seem like the most "trivial" crimes in order to set a precedent. "I can give you a litany of things the PLP ought to be doing, starting with what some people might consider small or trivial matters," he said. "I think it's important to show people you take law and order in this country seriously by dealing with the small matters.

"There were two examples recently in particular. There was what I can only describe as a debacle over parking tickets and the fact that we don't appear to give that any serious attention even though it involves $600,000 of unpaid fines.

"We're telling people that in some cases we're prepared to let the law slide. We did the same thing with respect to a breathalyser. We brought a new one in and put it in operation but unfortunately didn't put the legislation in to make it effective until over a year later. It's little things like this that I think tend to send a message that we're not really serious about enforcing laws in this country."

Mr. Barritt maintains that although members of the PLP "talk a good game", they have yet to make any real effort to cut down on violent crimes.

"This Government made a big song and dance in the Throne Speech about how it was going to increase penalties for people who commit violent offences, particularly with weapons and particularly in sports clubs! Here we are, weeks away from going down for another year, and we haven't seen that legislation.

"It speaks volumes about their priorities, which is to say they don't rate it highly. And yet they talk a good game."

Whereas Trevor Moniz sees the reinstatement of capital punishment as an impossibility, Mr. Barritt sides with Maxwell Burgess, hoping that despite the obvious obstacles, Bermuda could one day have the death penalty back on the books.

"I would concede it is an uphill battle but there's nothing like giving it an effort," he said.

Mr. Moniz maintains that although capital punishment was indeed legal in Bermuda before 1999, it was not used after 1977, and was therefore futile.

"I would have no compunction in using capital punishment in appropriate cases," he said. "The thing is that we never exercised capital punishment anyway. We did it in the 1970s and it caused some civil unrest because it was politically sensitive at the time.

"It's fine saying we had capital punishment but we didn't use it, so did we really have it?"

Attempts to get a PLP response were unsuccessful this week.