Senators divided on death penalty

KAY-MARIE FLETCHER

Senior Reporter

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There are mixed reviews coming from the Upper House on the death penalty, following the ruling that a 31-year-old man be hanged for a double murder.

Last Monday, Justice Nalini Singh ruled that Rishi Motilal be sentenced to death by hanging for the 2024 fatal choppings of his common-law wife Tara Ramsaroop and their 14-month-old infant daughter Shermaya Motilal.

Speaking to Guardian Media outside the Parliament yesterday, Government Senator David Nahkid and Independent Simon de la Bastide said they were against the death penalty in Trinidad and Tobago.

Independent de la Bastide said, “Personally, I am against the death penalty, although I understand, like everybody, emotionally sometimes maybe you see the point of others who are in favour of it, but intellectually speaking, I’m against the death penalty.

“There are well-rehearsed arguments in favour of for and against. I just don’t think it is the right thing to do. Also, there’s the danger of putting to death somebody who is innocent and I don’t think we should ever take that risk. But sometimes you get heinous crimes and you can understand why people speak in favour of it.”

Nakhid, meanwhile, said, “That’s a really nuanced question for me. I agree with the penalty in principle, but I’ve never agreed with it in countries where the judicial system has not been impartial, especially towards people of colour, especially towards disadvantaged people.

“So, I don’t agree with the death penalty in countries like the United States and Trinidad falls, as far as I’m concerned, within that category. We tend to be biased against people of colour and people who come from disadvantaged societies.”

On the other hand, Independent Senator Candice Jones-Simons sees the death penalty as an asset.

Jones-Simons said, “The death penalty is on our law books. I think that it has been an appropriate consequence for crime and I think it can act as a deterrent.”

Independent Senator Marlene Attzs said she believes the call for the death penalty may have to do with the spate of crime.

“I think it’s going to be an interesting conversation. I suppose one of the things that would have prompted that is the state of crime and the kinds of crimes that we’re seeing and the fact that the population and the Government is at its wits’ end in terms of trying to understand what is happening and how do we have deterrence, because you have the issue of increasing rates of crime and you have lower detection rates,” Attzs said.

“It’s difficult to solve. So, I think it’s really one of the things that perhaps the Government is going to contemplate, but it will require a lot of discussion moving forward because you know, that’s not something we will welcome easily and it is going to provoke a lot of conversations, I imagine, from different quarters so we wait and see.”

Last year, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar reported that there were 38 inmates on death row, with 18 eligible to be hanged as of May 2025.