One way a Minnis administration would "attempt to stop" crime is through ensuring that hangings resume, Free National Movement (FNM) Leader Dr. Hubert Minnis declared last week as he continued his efforts to build a case for his election to the highest political office in the land.
For many Bahamians who do not feel safe in their communities, who are frustrated by the high rate of violent crimes and who feel let down by the Christie administration, this announcement may have provided some comfort.
In deciding who they will support at the next general election, voters should, however, resist the urge to act based on emotionalism.
We must, in a sober fashion, assess the pledges made by those who wish to lead us.
If we do not, we should not be surprised or disappointed when they do not deliver.
Obvious examples of this are the promises by the Progressive Liberal Party before the 2012 general election to put in place National Health Insurance "within the first year"; to bring immediate relief to people facing foreclosure; to reverse the high level of unemployment and make our communities safer.
If the FNM wins the general election with Minnis as leader, he would become the prime minister of The Bahamas.
He served one term as a Cabinet minister. We do not recall at any time him using his important platform as a member of Parliament and as a minister to call for the resumption of the death penalty.
As leader, he is seeking to set his party's agenda for change, supposedly.
Perhaps he is indeed serious about seeking to make this pledge a reality, although he should guard against using language like "attempting to stop crime".
We have heard the pledge to resume hangings on many occasions. In our current circumstances, it is not a realistic pledge unless it is accompanied by serious political will to make drastic legislative and constitutional amendments; it appears to be a convenient hook to play on fears.
Many Bahamians now see that they have gotten nowhere by buying into the Progressive Liberal Party's pie-in-the-sky promises on crime and many other national issues.
Prime Minister Perry Christie has long declared his support for the death penalty.
Speaking at the funeral of murdered prison officer, Dion Bowles, in 2006, Christie said, "I am not in agreement with those who say capital punishment should not be in place. I am personally for capital punishment.
"Prime ministers don't go around saying things like that, but I want to tell you all that and plenty people do not agree. That is what I believe, and as long as I'm prime minister, the brothers and sisters who don't believe it I will fight with them."
At a PLP conclave in 2011, Christie said, "There are some of us who agree and some of us who disagree, but I'm here tonight to say that the PLP has always complied with and carried out the law as it relates to hanging, and nothing will change with respect to that."
At the start of 2014, Christie said his government will give the issue of capital punishment "serious consideration" and suggested his administration might address it through constitutional proposals.
But no one has ever been hanged under a Christie administration, and there have been no constitutional or legislative proposals.
If the resumption of capital punishment is indeed a part of Minnis' plan, then he should lay out very clearly and realistically how he intends to bring that about.
After Minnis declared in the House of Assembly last week that, under his administration, the necks of "murderous scumbags" would be "popped", we wondered whether he had yet thought through how he intends to bring this about -- or was he merely pandering to crime fears?
This is a deeply complex issue.
Pandering is unhelpful and a shameless attempt to win votes. We hope that is not what Minnis is doing in his pronouncements.
We have had enough of politicians who say anything just to get elected, but who have no real plan to put their words into action.
There has not been a hanging in The Bahamas since January 6, 2000, under the second Ingraham term.
But there appears to be a significant appetite for the death penalty to be carried out.
In early 2014, the results of a scientific poll conducted by the local market research and public opinion company, Public Domain, showed that 76.4 percent of respondents supported the death penalty; 12.7 percent somewhat supported it; 2.1 percent someone disagreed; 7.1 percent strongly opposed the death penalty and 1.8 percent did not answer.
Speaking to The Tribune last week, Minnis vowed to do everything in his power "to ensure that we start hanging these murderers".
"I want to amend the constitution so murder cases will only go as far as the Court of Appeal right here and would no longer go to the Privy Council. I will do everything to carry out the law, and the law says hang, so that is what I will do," he said.
"This issue will be discussed and debated in the House of Assembly and then taken to the people. We will have this referendum, because I am a strong advocate and believer of hanging. The crime has to stop and this is just one way we will attempt to stop it."
What is Minnis saying exactly? If we are to see his pledge as realistic, it ought to be carefully considered.
Is he suggesting that murder convicts would have only one opportunity to appeal and all other matters could be appealed to the Privy Council? Would the person convicted of armed robbery, assault or a lesser crime have more avenues of appeal than a person convicted of murder?
Is Minnis suggesting he would push to sever ties with the Privy Council completely?
Here again, the implications would need to be outlined and carefully examined.

Strict standards
Over the years, the London-based court has continued to move the bar as it relates to capital punishment, making it seemingly impossible for The Bahamas to hang convicts.
In 2011, the Privy Council held that the circumstances that led to the death of 16-year-old Donnell Conover were not gruesome enough to mandate the death sentence for her killer, Maxo Tido.
Conover's skull was crushed and her body was burned.
Many Bahamians were outraged that this crime was not considered the worst of the worst. It was clear that the death penalty standard set by the Privy Council was out of step with the thinking of many Bahamians.
The compelling question in light of the Maxo Tido decision was whether the Privy Council remained relevant to the evolving customs and norms of Bahamian society.
Through its various decisions, the Privy Council continues to write policy for The Bahamas and other such jurisdictions that send it appeals.
Even with opponents continuing to point out that there is no evidence to show that capital punishment serves as a deterrent to crime, the call for the resumption of hangings continues to resound -- again, Minnis sees the death penalty as being necessary in his "attempt to stop crime".
No government, in light of the years of debate since the landmark Pratt and Morgan decision in 1993, has thought it appropriate to have a referendum on this vexing question of the death penalty.
In that judgment, the Privy Council ruled that it would be cruel and inhumane to execute someone who has been under the sentence of death for more than five years.
Given the lack of any timelines, the appeals process in many instances since that ruling has dragged well beyond the five-year mark, and many murder convicts have escaped execution.
There is also a push in some legal circles for The Bahamas to withdraw from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, another avenue for appeal for murder convicts.
In 2006, the Privy Council imposed an even stricter standard for the imposition of the death penalty when it ruled that the mandatory death sentence was unconstitutional.
Kofhe Goodman, who was convicted of the 2011 murder of 11-year-old Marco Archer, is the only person under the sentence of death at the prison at Fox Hill.
In his ruling last week in the case of Thorne Edwards and Lyndera Curry, who were found responsible for the 2013 death of Kurt McCartney, Senior Justice Stephen Isaacs noted that Edwards' lawyer opined that there is a public outcry for the death penalty.
But the judge wrote, "... blood lust of the public is never a factor that can be taken into account. The court is required to consider all the circumstances of the offense and the offender."
McCartney was shot and the assailant got into his Hummer and drove off, rolling over his body in the process.
Edwards was convicted of murder and armed robbery. Curry was convicted of manslaughter and armed robbery.
But the judge ruled that while the murder seems senseless and callous, the Crown had not met the standard set by the Privy Council in that it had failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that this murder is the worst of the worst, or that there is no reasonable prospect for reform.
Justice Isaacs sentenced Edwards to 45 years for the murder and 20 years for the armed robbery; Curry was sentenced to seven years for manslaughter and five years for armed robbery.

Don't play on fears
Minnis has in the past said he would ensure that murder convicts are hanged. We have no way of knowing at this juncture how much of a priority item it would be for him should he be elected to the seat of power.
Back in December 2014, Constitutional Commission Chairman Sean McWeeney told us there was a "very strong push" for a constitutional referendum to deal with the death penalty.
"I wouldn't be surprised if this is moved ahead in the queue," he said.
"But that's a matter for the prime minister and leader of the opposition to decide how they want to pose the next round."
Interestingly, Minnis has never denied a widely carried statement by McWeeney that he was only interested in the gender equality issue being on the ballot of the recent constitutional referendum.
There was no push by Minnis for the death penalty question to be looked at.
In its July 2013 report to the government, the Constitutional Commission recommended that The Bahamas keep the death penalty on its books and also keep the Privy Council as its final court of appeal.
However, the commission recommended that the law be amended to increase the likelihood that the death penalty be carried out.
It recommended that the government amend the law to "tie the hands" of the Privy Council.
In the report, the commission said to ensure that the executive is able to carry out the death penalty in a case which the courts have determined would warrant it, the government may have to consider amending the law to prevent challenges to the death penalty.
Despite his own pronouncements, the death penalty issue is not a priority of the current prime minister.
Declaring that he would resume hangings in The Bahamas seems to be an easy way for Minnis to appeal to the public's blood lust and play on fears.
Well-thought-out plans to address crime ought to be presented to the public by political leaders. Such plans should be multi-faceted and realistic in their approach.

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