The execution of Richard Woods

On April 10th, 1993 as the community of Harbour Island enjoyed their Easter weekend a loud crash and scream was heard on Dunmore Street. These were the horrific sounds of 51 year old Richard Woods hitting 32 year old Pauline Johnson his lover who was also his niece with his truck.

Pauline was walking with a male friend which may have fueled the jealousy, unfortunately, she would succumb to her injuries 5 days later, she was survived by her husband and 3 children. As a result, Richard Woods was sentenced to death in January 1995.

Richard Woods’ day of execution would be shared with Trevor Fisher who was also convicted of murder. October 16th, 1998 proved that most Bahamians and international human rights organizations feel very differently regarding executions.

As the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights petitioned to save their lives, Bahamians turned the executions into an event. Food vendors set up shop amongst the crowd, students stopped by on their way to school and the crowd cheered as death notices were hung on the prison gates.

The last execution in The Bahamas would be on January 6th,2000, to read more on that check out my previous Halloween story about John Higgs

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