Our sense of justice

THIS newspaper confesses to an uneasy feeling that our country is losing its sense of justice. Or it may be that we have overestimated the level of concern our society should have to ensure that standards of justice are vigorously and equitably applied regardless of the status of the persons involved. The problem or the failure is not sited in our courts where we believe judges of undoubted integrity still preside, nor can we indict the legal profession as a whole although we feel its members should be more alert to these troubling issues, seeing their mandate as more than just the interest of their clients or execution of their briefs.

The fault, we believe, lies mostly with the administrators, those who are responsible in various ways for maintaining a watchful overview of the system together with our society at large which, having pretensions to be civilised, should be the ultimate watchdogs, quick to protest or agitate when obvious cases of injustice or instances of inequality or lack of fairness become apparent. A society that fails to appreciate the importance of justice, even when it concerns the freedom of one man, is an immature society, still consumed by personal and materialistic interests.

The disturbing fact is that since we highlighted, more than five weeks ago, the plight of Felix James who has spent the last 32 years in prison “at Her Majesty’s pleasure” not a single voice from the public has been raised to support our call for his release. No member of our so-called civilised society has been moved by the gross injustice being done to James who is the country’s longest serving prisoner, a man who has obviously been lost and forgotten in the system, whose lengthy incarceration under such an amorphous stipulation, has never been reviewed by the authorities in spite of his repeated appeals.

In a fit of passion, James stabbed his girlfriend to death when he was 17 years old and, as he was deemed insane at the time, he was sentenced to prison “at Her Majesty’s pleasure.” The fact is that James has spent more time in jail than the life sentence, between 15 to 20 years,  usually imposed on persons found guilty of manslaughter. Also, prisoners found guilty of premeditated, cold blooded murders, have been awarded presidential pardons and released as part of the country’s independence celebrations. And these killers had been serving far less time behind bars than James when they were released.

As far as we are concerned, there is no reason whatever  why James should be kept any longer in prison and for the authorities to continue to do so amounts not only to an act of injustice but unwarranted brutality. In legal terms, his on-going incarceration may also prove to be a constitutional travesty. Even without the support of an indifferent public, this newspaper feels compelled to press for the release of James who more than deserves his freedom now. As we said before, James’ case is bolstered by the commendation he received for bravery at Carrera in 1991 and his good behaviour which resulted in his appointment as an assistant orderly at the island prison. Last week, Chuck Attin, who raped and slaughtered two housewives at Westmorrings when he was 16 and who was imprisoned “at the Court’s pleasure” will have his incarceration reviewed every three years, by order of the Court. This is a procedure that was never accorded to James. How unjust can we get?