Allan Dodd should cause Bermudians to think about hanging and about capital punishment in general.

In some ways Dodd was an unusual case. He wanted to hang and said openly that he knew he would enjoy killing and raping again. The details of his killings of young boys presented at his trial were so horrible that some jurors had to seek psychiatric help.

While there have been other executions in the United States, Dodd was the first person to be hanged since 1965 when four people were hanged in Kansas, two of whom were the men about whom In Cold Blood was written and a major film was made. Thus when it came time to execute Dodd, much of the controversy surrounded hanging and whether or not that constituted cruel and unusual punishment, rather than controversy over capital punishment itself.

In Bermuda the issue has usually been capital punishment with the understanding that hanging was the means of capital punishment. When we last had hangings, it was necessary to go through the most unpleasant preparations in terms of building a gallows and finding hangmen. We think Bermuda should now consider hanging because there are clearly more humane ways to execute people.

There are strong feelings on capital punishment in Bermuda and the factor which makes capital punishment such a difficult issue is that public feeling pro and con varies widely depending on the details of the particular crime for which hanging is the sentence. It seems to us that Bermudians gravitate toward favouring capital punishment if the victim of the murder is a child.

Bermudians also seem to lean toward capital punishment if the murder weapon is a gun. They do not seem to favour capital punishment for domestic murders, unless children are involved. In recent years there have been two widely publicised capital crimes where the circumstances were such that we think there would have been very little public protest had there been hangings.

Additional confusion results from racial considerations in capital crimes. It has often seemed to us that Bermudians, of both races, were not openly opposed to capital punishment if the victim and the accused were of the same race.

Problems seem to have arisen where the victim was white and the condemned man black. While it has not arisen, we suspect there would be similar problems if the victim was black and the condemned man white.

Over the years, Bermuda's Parliament has reconfirmed capital punishment but without much enthusiasm and some prominent leaders of varying political philosophies have been openly opposed. A non-binding referendum went in favour of capital punishment but proved very little because very few people bothered to vote.

We think that Bermuda should consider capital punishment calmly during a period when the public is not pressured by the prospect of a hanging. Too often we react to situations and make decisions under pressure because we ignore problems unless confronted.

We think that capital punishment is wrong for Bermuda because it is disruptive and divisive in a small country which is very susceptible to public demonstration. The community has a right to be protected from a Westley Allan Dodd who admits he would kill and rape again and enjoy it, but the community also has a duty not to brutalise itself.