The Tribune

By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Tribune Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

NATIONAL Security Minister Wayne Munroe, QC, defended his past as a criminal attorney yesterday insisting that only a “stupid” person would believe this was not a beneficial tool in the dispensation of his Cabinet portfolio’s duties.

 Mr Munroe was responding to critics who have intimated that his extensive career as a criminal lawyer meant he could not work in the best interests of Bahamians.

 However, the Free Town MP was adamant that his experience was exactly what the government needed to ensure legislation was “bulletproof,” including how to ensure those who receive the death penalty retain their sentencing as opposed to having a higher court overturn it in the future.

 “I would say that that’s an incredibly stupid person – and that would be an incredibly stupid person – who would believe that anybody thinks they’re immune to crime,” the minister said when asked to respond to people who have insisted that in representing a sexual offender previously, he was not minded to ensure the complete implementation of a sex offender’s registry.

“Somehow that would be a stupid person who would think that I think either of my two daughters (or) any of my children are immune to crime.

“We need to get out of that stupid way of thinking.

“The one thing that I can tell you is my experience permits me to know exactly how you can attack any piece of legislation. It permits me to be able to know what you have to do to ensure that legislation is bulletproof.

 “We hire hackers to tell us how to safeguard our system from hacking so this concept that somebody who has no clue whatsoever about how you attack a city can defend the city is just foolish and I would simply call that an incredibly stupid person.”

 Regarding the death penalty, Mr Munroe said the government’s position was to enforce all laws.

 The issue has been a topical one for years and frequently becomes a point of national discussion after a heinous crime.

 Marco City MP Michael Pintard told the House of Assembly on Wednesday that in the wake of a recent brutal killing, it was now time for MPs to come together to better define the worst of the worst in criminal proceedings.

 The death penalty is on the country’s lawbooks, however, the last hanging execution in The Bahamas occurred on January 6, 2000.

 Mr Munroe said: “As far as I’m aware the Davis-Cooper administration’s position is to enforce all of the laws that are on the books. The thing people will simply say ‘Oh I did murder cases,’ yes, so I know how you can attack something.

 “All of the skills that I use to question and to challenge laws will now be channeled into how we do things properly because it’s pointless, as we’ve seen, to get somebody sentenced to death in the Supreme Court be the subject of it being overturned by the Bahamas Court of Appeal or it being overturned by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.

  “So, if those silly people don’t want people who have experience in the areas to be involved now when guarding against it, if they would have their way you would have people that put laws in place that are never going to withstand an appellate process.

 “As a people we have to understand that we are a country of laws and when we design our laws, we have to design them to stand up so when you get somebody sentenced to death, they remain sentenced to death.”

 He continued: “I have my views on how that can be done and I certainly will be sharing them with my colleagues. I have spoken about them publicly.

 “I have always gone on the record as supporting the death penalty but not for any deterrent reason whatsoever and so we will see what we can do about it and I’m happy to hear Mr Pintard say that they would cooperate.

 “It’ll be interesting to see if they actually do because a promise is a comfort to a fool,” Mr Munroe said.