01 December 2008 :

fourteen bishops of the Anglican Church in the Province of the West Indies, meeting in the Bahamas, under the chairmanship of the Archbishop of the West Indies, Rev Drexel Gomez, registered their opposition to the death penalty. They also called for intervention by government and cooperation of the Church as part of civil society, to deal with the situation which facilitates the upsurge of crime and violence in the Caribbean region. In a communique the West Indian Bishops state that they are “of one mind in calling our people to stand with us in our opposition to the death penalty.” “Whereas throughout the Caribbean there has arisen in recent times a rapid escalation in criminal activity in which the great increase in the number of murders committed has become a major concern among the populace at large… the death penalty has not been proved to be a deterrent.”