in the news because this month is the 20th anniversary of the hanging of Burrows and Tacklyn -- and because a particularly brutal murder has been committed.

Bermuda is in a difficult position where the death penalty is concerned. We are heavily influenced by the media of the United States and by US television.

Clearly the death penalty, although not hanging, is undergoing a revival in the United States, particularly in states like Texas. Death seems to us to be an especially cruel sentence in the US because of the length of time it takes between the sentencing and the actual carrying out of the sentence. Years and years can go by while prisoners sit on "death row'' undergoing a harrowing, on again-off again uncertainty to what often seems like no real purpose. Yet America seems unable or unwilling to refine the process.

Any number of the islands to our south are also very prone to exercising the death penalty, notably Jamaica. Bermuda's legislature did debate the death penalty since we last had hangings and did reaffirm hanging, although narrowing the application to "capital murder''.

Yet there are pressures from the United Kingdom to remove the death penalty from Bermuda's law books despite the fact that it has not been exercised for 20 years. The death penalty was abolished in Britain long ago and has been abolished from London in those small colonies which Britain administers.

Clearly Britain would like Bermuda to do the same.

In fact, in Bermuda all death sentences, even in a few especially horrible murders, have been commuted to life in prison which in Bermuda does not actually mean what it says. It is difficult to believe that a death sentence would actually be enforced in Bermuda today yet many Bermudians see its inclusion in the law as a deterrent. It seems to us it is unlikely that the possibility of hanging deters anyone.

It is true that Bermuda had a referendum on hanging which was heavily in favour of retaining the punishment, but the turnout was so small that it proved very little. Yet it seems clear that the majority of Bermudians are probably in favour of capital punishment. Public enthusiasm for or against the death penalty changes dramatically depending on when the question is asked. In the wake of an especially nasty murder, the number of people in favour greatly increases. That seems to be true at the moment because of the murder of an older Somerset woman.

Therefore it is probably fair to say that for Bermudians, the death penalty is an emotional issue. It seems to us that the 1977 riots had as much to do with emotions stirred by politics and politicians as they had to do with the hangings.

This newspaper concluded long ago that hanging someone would just be too disruptive for Bermuda and that whether or not individuals or the majority do or do not support capital punishment, the reality is that it should be abolished in Bermuda because of its potential for disruption. Therefore, abolition is in the national interest.