Report: 43% conviction rate in Home Circuit Court Easter term
Published:Friday | August 3, 2018 | 12:00 AMLivern Barrett/Senior Gleaner Writer
Forty-three per cent of the cases that were disposed of in the Home Circuit Court during the just-concluded Easter term ended with a conviction.
That's according to the latest figures released by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP), which show that a total of 222 cases were completed during the term.
The ODPP said 190 of those cases have been disposed of, while sentences are still to be handed down in the remaining 32.
However, a breakdown of the figures shows that 96 of the cases disposed of ended with a conviction, while 65, or 29 per cent, ended with an acquittal.
According to the data, 20 of the convictions were for murder, while 60 were for sexual offences. Eighteen of the acquittals were for murder, while 44 were for sexual offences.
Director of Public Prosecutions Paula Llewellyn used her constitutional authority to enter a nolle prosequi in 15 of the cases that were disposed of, while in six cases, the accused had passed away.
The Easter term began in April with 912 cases, which included 446 for murder and 356 for sex-related offences. That number, however, jumped to 1,094 with the addition of 182 cases during the term.