Tracey Taegar-Panton backs Nora Parham’s pardon: “long overdue”

By Aaron Humes: In signaling her support for the forthcoming motion by Minister of Human Development, Families and Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs Dolores Balderamos-Garcia to move the House to move the Belize Advisory Council to advise Her Excellency the Governor General to exercise the Prerogative of Mercy on the late Nora Parham, Albert area representative Tracey Taegar-Panton has asked that her picture be posted by Belizean women as their profile picture for the next few days.

Panton wrote on social media announcing the move: “HERStory is a dark stain in our Belizean History. I don’t know if we could ever undo the injustice, wrong or pain that was caused [to] our Belizean Society and especially to her family but this act is certainly long overdue.”

The gesture is to signal solidarity, she said, for her surviving children and grandchildren and with those who have undergone domestic violence.

Parham was hanged on June 5, 1963, after being convicted of the murder of her partner Ketchell Trapp in Orange Walk Town, by allegedly setting him on fire after an argument (the exact circumstances remain under dispute). Panton notes that the jury consisted of all men and delivered their verdict on April 30 after four hours of deliberation, while the colonial government refused clemency.

Taegar-Panton concludes, “I wish to state publicly that I support this motion and I join my own voice in offering the nation’s sincerest apologies to her family. I hope this Act or Parliament will help to heal the deep seethed wounds you have carried all these years. May her soul RIP [rest in peace].

The motion was officially introduced but deferred at the last regular meeting of the House prior to the Budget Debate. The House meets this Friday in Belmopan at 10:00 a.m.

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