THIS country cannot afford to waste time and money trying to reform cold-blooded killers, senior counsel Israel Khan has said.

"At this point in time of our history, we cannot afford to use scarce resources in an attempt to cure or reform a cold-blooded murderer," Khan stated in a release yesterday.

Khan has become the latest voice in the current debate on whether hangings should be resumed in this country.

"It is quite true to say that the death penalty is the premeditated and cold-blooded killing of a human being by the State. A civilised society cannot afford to be emotional and to build castles in the sky," Khan stated.

Khan said a criminal's punishment should take into account both the victim's and public's desire for retribution, or there will be vigilante justice consequences.

"It is necessary to satisfy, by a sufficient punishment for a particular crime, the public desire for vengeance against the wrongdoer. At this stage of our development, if the courts do not satisfy our thirst for revenge in the appropriate cases, we shall find members of the public taking the law into their own hands," Khan stated.

"The philosophy of punishment in the common law jurisdictions, such as Trinidad and Tobago, is that the sentencing court must demonstrate, by its sentence, the public revulsion of a particular type of crime by the punishment imposed, and that it is necessary to satisfy, by a sufficient punishment, the public desire for vengeance against a particular wrongdoer."

Khan also supported Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar's view that murder should be categorised into "first", "second" and "third" degrees.

The Government should hold a "referendum to determine the general will of the citizenry on this emotional and explosive issue of the death penalty", Khan said.

"It is a fallacy to say that the death penalty has failed to stop the increase in murders. No one knows. The probabilities are that the increase in murder would have been higher if the death penalty was totally abolished," he said.

"What we do know is that the abolition of the death penalty has not decreased the murders in those countries which have opted for abolition."

Khan called for hangings to be replaced by "a more humane and less cruel form of execution, like lethal injection".

He called for the death penalty for treason to be abolished and only maintained for "deliberate, wicked, evil and atrocious murders".