Access to gated communites curbing take-up of jurors – Sykes
Published:Tuesday | January 9, 2024 | 12:11 AM
Tanesha Mundle/Staff Reporter
If Jamaica is to continue with the jury system, Chief Justice Bryan Sykes says access to gated communities is one of the issues that will have to be tackled to diversify the jury pool.
“The proliferation of gated communities, both in Kingston and across the island, they are presenting a challenge to the police to get into these communities to serve the documents on the requisite persons, so all of this results in a small number of persons turning up as jurors for jury duties,” Sykes shared yesterday during a swearing-in ceremony for 12 judges at King's House.
The chief justice, while also complaining about the conditions in which jurors serve as well as the treatment meted out to potential jurors, said the authorities will have to review how the jury system is managed.
“If we are going to keep it, then we are going to have to do significantly better than we doing just starting with the simple thing as accommodation for persons," he said.
“They come and serve in very difficult circumstances, standing under a tree outside many of our courtrooms and if the rain falls then that presents its own challenges, the rooms that they are asked to retire in or deliberate are oftentimes cramped and uncomfortable. So if we are going to retain the jury system, then we really need to treat our citizens better,” he said.
Sykes has been an advocate for the abolition of the jury system, arguing that there is no data to suggest that jury trials offered a better quality of justice as opposed to a judge-alone trial. Additionally, he says jury selection consumes a significant amount of time.
However, several defence lawyers have opposed the idea of abandoning the jury trial, noting that the voice of the people is important in the dispensation of justice.
Sykes while speaking about the factors hampering the jury selection process, pointed out that jury duties tend to fall disproportionately as the service often falls on the persons who can least afford it.
“Many of the persons who turn up for jury service simply don’t have the economic means to serve as jurors because the system is that in essence they have to fund their travels and bear their expenses and under the present system only those who are selected as jurors received a stipend at the end of it," he explained.
“So all of those who travel from the border region of the parish down to court who are not selected, there are no stipend to get and a significant number of our jurors do not have bank accounts with the financial institutions so when they are paid with the cheque the bank charges a fee," the chief justice said, adding that they are only paid for the days they are sitting.
Currently, jurors receive a $2,000 stipend per day, up from $500 per day in 2015.
In the meantime, the chief justice said the operation at the rural circuit needs to be reviewed as the current format is no longer effective.
"What is clear from the data is that the rural circuit court system has run its course, it is really no longer fit for purpose and cannot continue much longer into the 21st century."
He said the 16 weeks per year in which the rural circuit courts meet is inadequate to deal with the volume of cases that are in each parish.
"There are no longer any parishes with a light list, that has become a thing of the past, you have significant complex cases in all of the circuits, multiple defendants and all of that is taking place in the context of not very enthusiastic take-up of persons to become jurors,” Justice Sykes said.
Meanwhile, 12 judicial officers were sworn in to act in permanent and acting positions in the high court. Justices Lorna Shelly-Williams and Georgiana Fraser are to act as Court of Appeal judges from January 15, 2024, to March 22, 2024, while Sandria Wong-Small and Dale Staple have been appointed puisne judges.
Justices Sharon Millwood-Moore, Pamela Margot Mason, Stephany Orr, Opal Smith and Tracey-Ann Johnson were also appointed to act as puisne judges.
Tamara Dickens was also appointed to act as master-in chamber, while Luciana Jackson and Christine McNeil were appointed acting masters-in-chambers.