Sykes concerned new firearm legislation could cause backlog in Gun Court
Published:Tuesday | December 5, 2023 | 12:08 AMAlbert Ferguson Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
CHIEF JUSTICE Bryan Sykes has expressed that the new firearm legislation is threatening to cause a backlog of cases in the Gun Court in Kingston due to the timeline in which forensic certificates are being produced as part of the preparation for a case.
Sykes’ concern comes with the need to have scientific data analysis, by way of a DNA report, as an item that is now required to facilitate trial.
Presently, the High Court division of the Gun Court is backlog-free, with cases that originated in 2023 being tried and scheduled for trial in the first quarter of 2024.
“The High Court division of the Gun Court in Kingston is backlog-free for now. And I say for now because that is being endangered, because under the new firearms legislation the prosecution is now asking for DNA analysis,” Sykes said.
“So, whereas before it used to be just simply the ballistic certificate, they are now asking for DNA analysis,” the chief justice noted.
He pointed out that having the certificate on the case file can take as much as a year, depending on the point of requesting the lab when it is assigned internally.
“The DNA analysis takes long, sometimes six months, sometimes a year, because [the] time for forensic services begin when the case is assigned, not when it gets to the lab,” Sykes revealed.
He made that observation while delivering the keynote address at the 91st annual awards banquet of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry, held at the Montego Bay Convention Centre, on Saturday night.
The new Firearms Act that was passed into law over a year ago has not only increased penalties for illegal possession of a firearm, but it has changed the entire regime surrounding the use, handling, sale, and management of firearms by various authorised personnel.
Other key features of the law are the creation of new offences surrounding the illicit trading of firearms, as well as new procedures for how these offences are to be treated in court.
Along with a ballistic analysis, investigators will now have to produce a DNA analysis for each firearm before the court.
But Sykes has called on members of the Montego Bay business community to speak with their local political representatives, noting that those who are empowered to craft legislation should move to correct hurdles that the new laws are likely to cause in the delivery of timely judgments.
“These are things now that you can begin to speak about with your [political] representatives, those who are in a position to make decisions that affect the flow of cases through the court in that way,” Sykes said.