Lawyer raps Gov’t for not doing enough to assist justice system

A senior attorney-at-law on Wednesday blasted the Government for giving lip service to the justice system and instituting measures, such as longer sentences, that continue to add to the inefficiencies in the system while calling for much more to be done.

“Our legislature likes to talk tough to deal with crime but they are not careful at what they are doing to help the justice system,” loyd McFarlane said.

He added: “They keep passing laws to make sentences longer, they think that judges are too soft but they won’t build no prison when it is obvious that if you make the sentences longer then you are going to have people in there longer and you are going to need more space. No provisions are made for that.”

“Our legislature pass law that gives the court, which include not only the judges but the prosecutor etc., so much more work. And what does the Government do to ensure that it can be done?” he asked.

The attorney levelled the stinging criticism during his response on behalf of the private Bar at the opening ceremony of the Easter Term at the Home Circuit Court in downtown Kingston, where it was disclosed that 686 matters are to be dealt with over the term which ends on July 20. All of the cases, except one, are matters that have been carried over from the previous Hilary Term.

McFarlane also rapped the Government for what he described as “forcing” the court to deal with the anti-gang matters and not making provisions for them to properly and adequate deal with those matters while attending to other cases.

“So effectively, the criminal courts have over the years tried to expand on the number of courtrooms, but in the end when one case takes up two courtrooms we really don’t have the expansion at all because the type of cases and the number of accused have also expanded,” he said further, while alluding to the current anti-gang matter which has had to utilise two of the Home Circuit Court ourtrooms because of the large number of accused.

The Clansman One-Don Gang trial, said to be the largest of its kind in the English-speaking Caribbean, has 33 defendants, including alleged leader Andre ‘Blackman’ Bryan, along with 40 defence counsels and four prosecutors.

In continuing, McFarlane said, “The call then is for the Government to understand that the justice system needs more assistance from our Government, and if it’s not aided despite all the case management, all the efforts of our courts, this backlog number each time we open is going to remain as daunting as it was 40 years ago.”

But despite the challenges and lack of serious support from the Government, McFarlane said he has seen positive changes in the justice system, especially in the area of technology.

However, he said what remains unchanged is the high number of cases on the list each term.

“I can’t recall ever seeing a situation when we come back and we have a true dent in the backlog. Every time we come there is a distinguished carry-over,” he said.

However, he said the court is blameless as the chief justices over the years have all tried tirelessly to reduce the backlog, including the current one who is aiming to make the system the best in the region in three years and best in the world in six years.

STATISTICS

Based on the statistics compiled by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, murders accounted for the bulk of the cases on the list with 370, followed by sexual offence matters which numbers 224.

Of the total number of cases, 658 are matters which were transferred from the Hilary Term, 27 are sentencing matters and one new committal case.

In the meantime, senior deputy director of public prosecutions, Jeremy Taylor, while lamenting the list’s high volume of murder matters, which he described as the “Queen of offences”, pledged the prosecution’s commitment to do its part “to break the back of the list” and not to contribute to the chronic problem of delay plaguing the system as “justice delayed is justice denied”.

“We also undertake that where there is no case, we shall not tarry even as I urge our friends where there is no case, they should also plead guilty,” he said, while adding that an early guilty plea could result in a 50 per cent sentence reduction.