Government’s decision to go the route of judge alone trials has given some members of the legal fraternity pause.
Attorney at law Andrew Pilgrim, KC, said he remained sceptical that the scales of justice would be fully balanced under the proposed judge alone trial system.
Pilgrim said personal biases of judges could impact the fairness of trials. He also expressed reservations about the transparency of the selection process for the appointment of judges.
“It is very simple. You have good judges and bad judges, you have biased judges and unbiased judges, no judge is perfect and that is why I like the jury system. I guess the view for some people is that judge alone trials will expedite things, but we will have to wait and see if that is indeed the case. There are some judges that I would like to go in front of because I feel as though I would get a fair shake, but there are others that I do not think I would,” Pilgrim said.
He added: “I am still not convinced that the manner in which we choose judges in Barbados is entirely transparent. . . .”
The seasoned attorney noted that there was a disproportionate appointment of former prosecutors to the bench as opposed to former defence advocates.
Former Attorney General Adriel Brathwaite QC. (FILE)
“The other thing that we must consider is that many of our judges are former prosecutors and this too must be factored In. The main thing is that some judges will give you an easy trial and others would not and that is the thing that we have to now grapple with in this new paradigm of our justice system,” he said.
Former Attorney General Adriel Brathwaite revealed he had plans to introduce this system prior to leaving office in 2018, explaining it was intended to be a means of mitigating the increasing backlog of cases.
He said that in countries which implemented judge alone trials it was discovered the issues of law were best determined by judges as opposed to by a jury.
“South Africa was one of the jurisdictions that we looked at when I was Attorney General and we concluded that this would assist in terms of our backlog. We were also concerned that juries were making decisions that were not in the best interest of the system. However, with a judge you stand a better chance of having a fairer outcome,” Brathwaite argued.
He continued: “So, it is difficult for me to disagree because I believe that we need to try something different. If you look at murder trials, in particular, we were being told that juries did not want to find a guy guilty of murder if it meant that he could lose his life. They would find him guilty of manslaughter easily because they did not want that stain of contributing to someone losing their life.”
Attorney General Dale Marshall tabled the new legislation this week, suggesting it should go a long way in improving the system once accused individuals take the option.
The Nation team also contacted president of the Barbados Bar Association, Kaye Williams, who said she would comment on this issue but did not do so up to Press time.
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