Executive director of Jamaicans for Justice, Dr Carolyn Gomes, leaves Gordon House after parliamentarians voted for the country to retain the death penalty yesterday. - Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer

Parliamentarians who yesterday overwhelmingly chose to retain the death penalty have come in for intense criticism for appearing to treat the vote with too much levity.

Dr Carolyn Gomes, executive director of human-rights lobby Jamaicans for Justice, said she was disgusted by the behaviour of parliamentarians during yesterday's vote at Gordon House.

"This is a matter of life and death. This is not a matter that invites levity and bad behaviour and shouting and carrying on and that was the behaviour of some parliamentarians," Gomes told The Gleaner/Power106 News. "It was appalling."

Retention will change nothing

She was adamant that the retention of the death penalty would change nothing.

"It is not going to change the circumstances or prevent one murder," she argued. "It's a complete and total waste of time. What we should be focusing on is apprehending people who commit crime and getting them before the courts, so they can rule expeditiously on the matter."

Gomes said that though there are currently eight people on death row, most have appealed and are, therefore, not likely to be hanged before the Privy Council passes a judgment.

"Unless we are going to break our own laws (we cannot hang them)," Gomes said.

"What we have is 1,500 murders per year and a clear-up rate of less than 40 per cent. What we need to do is catch the criminals and put in the social systems and support to prevent people from falling into lives of crime," she added.