Attorney General Dale Marshall says comprehensive reforms to ensure the speedier passage of cases through the courts and reduce the backlog are on the way.
Addressing the opening of a three-day workshop by the CARICOM IMPACS Crime Gun Intelligence Unit at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre recently, he highlighted the ongoing efforts of the Law Reform Commission, led by former Chief Justice Sir David Simmons, to revamp the criminal procedure rules.
“We’ve had them for many years, but there have been a lot of changes in the law and we recognise that the procedures that we currently adopt are not necessarily the most efficient,” he said.
One of the major issues identified was the current committal process. Historically, the system involved a preliminary exercise before an individual was committed to the High Court for trial. While paper committal replaced the preliminary enquiry during Sir David’s tenure as Chief Justice, the process remains time-consuming. Marshall proposed a new approach where the first hearing before a magistrate would allow the accused to plead guilty or not guilty, moving the case immediately to the High Court.
“The High Court judge will conduct what is called a sufficiency hearing, where he will just look at the evidence that is brought before him, and he or she would say, I believe there’s enough to proceed to trial,” he explained, adding this aimed to expedite the movement of cases through the system.
The proposed criminal procedure rules have been circulated among the legal community since May, with feedback expected by mid-August. A symposium will be held to discuss these rules with all stakeholders, ensuring a thorough review before implementation. Marshall anticipates the new rules will be in place by the end of September.
Reflecting on recent achievements, the Attorney General noted that the criminal justice system had disposed of 584 cases in the past 18 months, including 67 for murder. He said that this success would be built upon with the introduction of various initiatives such as plea bargain legislation and the judge-alone trial, which are designed to reduce the time taken for trials.
Marshall revealed there were 1 600 indictable matters awaiting trial.
“Now, if we got through 584 in 18 months, you could imagine what it would take to get through 1 600 indictable matters,” he said.
He highlighted the importance of the plea bargain legislation, which allows for early guilty pleas and swift court processing. He mentioned plans for a training symposium with the Director of Public Prosecutions’ (DPP) counterpart in Jamaica to ensure all stakeholders fully understood the benefits and procedures of the plea agreement.
Marshall also stressed the need to ensure that victims’ voices were heard in the plea bargain process.
“Where an accused pleads guilty, we have to make sure that the victim also has a voice . . . . The victim must be told that it is intended to do a plea bargain agreement, and they have the right to communicate with the DPP and give their views,” he said. (CLM)
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