Plea bargain could mean less justice, says senator

Samuel was speaking on Thursday during the debate on the Criminal Procedure (Plea Discussion and Plea Agreement) Bill 2017.

He said in plea bargaining the prosecutors are the ones who have the “big guns”.

“From a defendant’s perspective plea bargains are geared to extort a guilty plea.

Plea bargains are not there to help the accused but they are there to possibly tell the world that there is a deficiency in the justice system.

To tell the world that in a time where there is a lack of confidence in the systems in Trinidad and Tobago. Plea bargaining will suggest we are attempting to cover up inefficiencies. The inefficiencies of the police service to effectively investigate and detect and because there are inefficiencies there are prosecutorial inefficiencies.

In other words, things cannot happen in the normal process of court and history proves there are more cases that are being lost, so we have found a shortcut to commit people to prison,” he said.

Samuel said no where in the Bill does it refer to the victims understanding when a plea bargain is being arranged.

He said in Canada, the victims have a say, they have a right to submit a victim impact statement at the sentencing stage.

He said the victims must have access to the information about any pre trial arrangement that relates to a plea that may be entered by the accused on trial.

“So there must be information given to the victims if the State decides we are going to enter into a plea. The victim has a right to know.

This bill does not suggest that until it reaches the court,” he said.

He said there is an imbalance with plea bargaining and with that imbalance justice cannot be served.

“At the end of the day it is the person with the upper hand that wins.

At the end of the day it’s the people with the support mechanisms that wins and we call that plea bargaining we call that justice.

We say to our citizens that we are offering you something but really what we are doing is finding a shortcut for a clogged system. Unfortunately I see no bargain, unfortunately I see no justice, unfortunately I see people being taken advantage of,” Samuel said.