Bar on board with crime fight

President of the Barbados Bar Association, Kaye Williams, says the association is fully on board with the national fight against crime and joins with the Barbados Private Sector chairman Trisha Tannis in calling for the current national crime strategy to be backed by research that must be advanced urgently.

“Our response must be comprehensive, not reactionary,” Williams said in a statement to the Sunday Sun.

“There is a national strategy document on criminal justice reform which was advanced in last year’s stakeholder symposium but, in the view of the [Bar Association], it identifies the issues but does not have the statistical underpinnings needed to urgently prioritise and address the areas on which to focus scarce resources to reduce the recent spike in crime.”

She said Barbados had “one of the best criminal law benches, with eight fully functioning high courts in the Criminal Division, working full days and around the clock to reduce backlog. They have been outstanding. We applaud Government and the Office of the Attorney General for making this a top priority. However, the issues are in respect of other aspects of the criminal justice framework”.

Referencing the new Bail [Act], the Bar president called on “systemic delays” in the judicial system to be addressed first and foremost.

Urgent situation

“The situation is urgent. Passing a Bail Bill doesn’t address the systemic issues in the criminal justice system. This week it was reported that a firearm offence committed 15 years ago was only now brought up for sentencing. Another matter was dismissed on a no-case submission because there was no report, no available forensics and no availability of witnesses. The framework to support the Bail [Act] must be addressed. Anyone reading the daily court reports can see the typical issues causing delays for themselves” she said.

Williams itemised them: “Practically no forensic evidence available; overworked police officers struggling to complete investigations in order to produce reports and files promptly; underresourced agencies unable to provide probation and pre-sentencing reports promptly; lengthy remands, necessitating release on bail; no speedy trials; loss of reliable witnesses because of the delays; no court data or statistics to guide or direct where we should be placing our resources as a country to address the spate of violent crimes.”

Williams charged that prompt trials and convictions should be the order of the day and not “lengthy remands”.

“Being tough on crime to protect the public includes bringing the accused swiftly to face a fair trial. The concern is that the new bill to tighten the bail requirements was introduced in order to place the accused on remand, but without addressing the framework to support prompt trials. We need speedy trials with well supported police reports, forensic evidence and reliable witnesses. The BBA is therefore calling for recent statistics of the rate of convictions and the average length it takes for matters to reach trial. There was a time when serious offences were tried within months of the commission of the offence. We know anecdotally that it takes years. Is it a case where convictions are difficult to secure because of the length of time it takes to bring the accused to trial?” she asked.

She also lamented that the Forensics Laboratory was not functioning.

“Due to no fault of their own, the operations at the forensics laboratory have regrettably been closed and non-functional even before the COVID-19 pandemic. Often police investigations cannot

be fully completed. Too often matters are adjourned awaiting forensic reports. Some evidence is sent to Miami but this is costly and, in some cases, no reports are returned. I was reliably informed by a member of the Bar that evidence was sent to Miami for forensic reports to present at trial. That was two years ago. They are still awaiting the report.

In addition she said the delay was also causing a “loss of witnesses” and police reports were outstanding.

“Witnesses, reliable witnesses, dwindle because of the length of time that elapses. For all kinds of reasons, they’re not available years after the crime was committed. The overworked, under-resourced Police Service cannot produce reports efficiently. The BBA has been reliably informed that one officer could be allocated over 50 cases for which they have to visit the scene, conduct investigations, obtain statements and meet witnesses. Added to that, they have to type up everything. Often that officer is transferred to another department or station, but the file has to remain at the original station. So the officer is called to court, and attends court, but there is no file. Members of the public may report an incident to the police and hear nothing further. A similar situation of lack of resources occurs while waiting for probation and pre-sentencing reports. Are these challenges correctly stated? Where is the data or statistics to guide us.”

Convenor of the BBA Criminal Law Committee, Martie Garnes, supported this observation noting that getting tough on granting bail and placing accused on remand did not address the backlog issue.

“Accused are charged often with incomplete evidence, incomplete investigations. In my experience, very often there is no police file. What that means is the accused is neither committed nor indicted in a reasonable time so the judge has no choice but to eventually grant bail because there is a constitutional right to a trial in a fair and reasonable time.”

Expressd concern

The BBA expressed concern that the Bail [Act] will invite a number of constitutional challenges which will only further encumber its effectiveness.

“One of these areas include not one, but two ‘ouster clauses’ in which the final appeal lies only to the Barbados Court of Appeal. In effect, the ouster clauses ‘oust’ the jurisdiction of appeal to the Caribbean Court of Justice. There are other areas for potential constitutional challenge. We will have to wait and see the response of the Criminal Law Bar on behalf of their clients” Williams stated.

“Something as critical as constitutional amendments and an entire repeal of the existing Bail [Act] ought to have stakeholder consultation. This new Bail [Act] will touch and concern not only firearm and serious offences, but also every matter that has a criminal penalty. Charges of theft, money laundering, common assault – even penalties under the recently introduced Cybercrime [Act].”

The president said the association was “doing its part in respect of the role of defence attorneys in the criminal justice system” adding that training was set for later this year and into next year.

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