The Government is moving to have whipping removed as a disciplinary tool for convicted juvenile offenders and those committed to the New Opportunity Corps (NOC). To this end, a Juvenile Offenders Amendment Bill and the Training School Amendment Bill were tabled in the National Assembly on Thursday.
Cabinet Secretary Dr Roger Luncheon preceded the tabling with an announcement at his weekly, post-Cabinet media briefing.
Speaking on another piece of legislation which has already been drafted, the Criminal Law Offences Amendment Bill , Dr Luncheon said it will allow judges the discretion of not imposing  the capital punishment to all convicted of murderers.
He further explained that the legislation deals with specifics, noting there would be specified conditions under which the judges would apply the discretion, and for murders committed in specific contexts and under specific circumstances.
He said it is a known fact that not every convicted murderer warrants being sent to the gallows to be hanged.
But Dr Luncheon made is clear that this does not mean the death penalty has been abolished.
“I think it is an unnecessary stretch of the imagination to make some inexorable linkage between the abolition of the death penalty and this legislation,  so I would like to divorce any such thought from your minds because it was never our intention to so do in the absence of the appropriate consultation with Guyanese”, he added.
Further he said Government feels the same as the conventional wisdom out in the public domain, that all murders should not be treated the same way.