Senator Sturge cautions against plea-bargaining

He was especially concerned that the new bill ditches provisions in an existing 1999 Act that mandates sanctions against prosecutors caught abusing the system such as by offering improper inducements to defendants.

Sturge said that on one hand prosecutors seek to lift up such persons to ask juries to believe their word, yet will not themselves enter plea-deals with them due to fears of facing penalties under the 1999 Act, noting that four past Directors of Public Prosecutions (DPPs) had stayed far from using the Act.

Sturge said that just as such accused persons had snitched on their former partners in crime, so too were they likely to also turn on the prosecutors with whom they had struck a plea-deal. “You are dealing with the scum of the earth who will turn around and bite you.” Sturge cited the British case of the “Guildford Four” and the American case of the “Central Park Joggers” to show that prosecutors have knowingly pursued false prosecutions against persons later proven to be innocent.

He cited a local case, “Barry Brown and Others”, where it was later proven that the police and prosecutor had knowingly set up suspects, but without consequence when unearthed. “You know what happened to them? Nothing. That’s a lie. They got promoted.” He said one officer got promoted to be one rung away from being a Commissioner of Police, and could still fill that spot one day. Sturge feared that the current bill eviscerates the existing Judges Rules that has safeguards against involuntary statements being taken from suspects for court evidence. Sturge also warned of the plight of accused persons being defended by “green” lawyers from the Legal Aid scheme, who could easily be intimidated by the police when visiting his client in a police station.

“If the police just opens his mouth too hard, he (lawyer) would run out of the station.” Sturge urged that a fresh provision to mandate that an experienced lawyer be given to a suspect on a murder charge.