Convict kidnappers minus victims’ evidence

Making the recommendation was Indepen-dent Senator Dana Seetahal as she contributed yesterday to the debate on the Summary Offences Amendment Bill and the Criminal Procedure Amendment Bill in the Senate.

Government received support from all sides — Opposition and Independent — for the two bills, which are aimed at speeding up the trial process.

They were piloted by Attorney General John Jeremie who said that the justice system had a direct bearing on what happened on the ground in respect of crime.

He noted that if the system of justice didn’t function properly, criminals could use it to their advantage.

Seetahal raised the problem of criminals walking  free because witnesses were too traumatised and afraid.

She said in Jamaica there was the provision for offences to be proven — without having to call witnesses at all — using photographs of injuries and scientific evidence, in lieu of evidence in instances where the witness was afraid.

She said in the UK the law provided for victims of domestic violence not to give evidence in court, once there was physical evidence, since many of them were afraid and "didn’t want to end up stabbed, or their children killed."

Seetahal said the UK Government was considering amending in the same way the law relating to kidnapping.

She said in Jamaica and England the law provided, where a person gives a statement to the police, identifying the offender, but then gets cold feet by the time he has to identify him/her at the ID parade, (the law provided) for the statement (given to the police) to be used in court.

She said the pieces of legislation were tested and proven, and were shown to be no violation of the rights of the accused under the European Convention on Human Rights.

UNC Senator Robin Montano supported the bills, but stressed that they were "like putting a plaster over a cancer." He said there was a real problem in the Summary Courts. Magistrates and staff were overworked, overburdened and underpaid.

Saying that the magistrates’ courts were the engines that drove the judicial car, Montano said Government was pumping a lot of money into the CCJ, while leaving this vital element of the judicial machine in need of dire repair.

He said the physical state of all the magistrates courts — with the exception of PoS — were an absolute disgrace. He said every day each magistrate had a list of 1,500 cases before him/her. The result was that cases were adjourned over and over, he said. This was why people who were called as witnesses got fed up. And, he added, it was also because of these delays in having trials heard, that magistrates, worried about the implications of keeping someone, who hasn’t yet been convicted, incarcerated for long periods, and thus tended to grant bail. This in turn made the crime situation worse.

Opposition Senator Wade Mark said while the bills dealt with speeding up the trial process, a person had to be caught before they were brought to trial. "And this Government had failed the country in terms of apprehension," he said. Mark said since Minister of National Security Martin Joseph and the AG Jeremie made the tough-talking statements in Parliament about a crime plan, there were 32 murders.