Linton P Gordon
The recent surge in crime, in particular murders, has brought on the usual panicked response. The minister of national security started the panic ball rolling by declaring his intention to have his junior minister, learned counsel Pearnel Charles Jnr review the possibility of the resumption of hanging. Various experts and commentators have, in accordance with our democratic traditions, joined the debate on both sides.
It is of interest to know that our political leaders have a long tradition of pressing the panic button and implementing popular draconian measures at times of a spike in crime.
In the 70s the PNP administration under Michael Manley established the Gun Court. And we should recall that the Gun Court was painted red “to show that it dread”. The companion provision to the Gun Court was the draconian provision in the law that the punishment for possession of any firearm, part of a firearm or any ammunition was life sentence. Thus, even the possession of an empty bullet casing, which has no lethal value whatever, attracted a penalty of life sentence.
TRIAL WITHOUT JURY
The other very significant provision was that persons were being tried without a jury. That situation incidentally — trial without jury –is still the case today Yes, trials in the Gun Court Division of the Supreme Court today are done without a jury. And it is still possible for one to be sentenced to prison for life for being in illegal possession of a firearm.
There were also drastic provisions made under the Suppression of Crimes Act. These provisions authorised police officers to search premises without a warrant, in a wide range of circumstances. Very recently, the Jury Act was amended to reduce from 12 to seven, the number of jurors sitting on a murder case. The reasons given for these changes include the cost of having jurors attend, the difficulty in serving summons requesting jurors to attend and an effort to speed up the process by which matters are tried and disposed of in Court.
All these measures have one thread running through them, and it is that the authorities when in panic mode will do anything, that they believe will bring a solution to the crime problem.
In all the instances referred to above, the rights of citizens are denied or at least reduced. The right to be tried by your peers is a fundamental principle of our jurisprudence that should not be lightly departed from. There is no empirical evidence to support any view that trial by judge alone in the Gun Court has resulted in the speeding up of the process or a quicker disposal of cases. It seems that whenever there is an escalation in crime the first reaction is to see how punitive we can get and hope that by so doing we come up with a solution.
FROWNING PRIVY COUNCIL
It is highly unlikely that the judicial system in Jamaica will revert to capital punishment as part of its punishment regime. Our highest Court, the Privy Council has not only frowned on this method of punishment but has over and over and over given decisions that can be described as frustrating the march towards capital punishment.
Capital punishment itself has been proven beyond any doubt to be an unjust, uncertain and unreliable system of punishment which has resulted in several innocent persons being put to death for a number of reasons. In the United States of America for example there are several cases of black men especially, who have been put to death under sentence of a court in which false evidence was adduced by persons who are racist or who knowingly concoct evidence to get rid of an innocent man so that the guilty can walk.
There are now several persons in America who were on Death Row but have been released after DNA evidence confirmed the presumption that they were innocent and had nothing to do with the crime for which they were charged. In Jamaica the vast majority of persons who have been subjected to a sentence to death are poor black Jamaican citizens mainly from the depressed urban communities,
We have had instances, in recent times, of investigating officers concocting witness statements and placing them before the Court in an effort to gain a conviction. If a conviction obtained on this type of evidence and the accused, an innocent person, is sentenced to death then it will be a case of an innocent man being sent to his death through the use of concocted false evidence.
Capital punishment is final and irreversible. It is fast disappearing from the legal system of most modern countries. China and United States are exceptions. However in the USA, it is being accepted that capital punishment is a risky and unreliable method of punishment.
It is our wish and hope that the Minister of National Security will implement policies that will see a vast reduction of crime and a society in which we all feel safe. However policies grown out of panic and a quick-fix approach will not bring about a solution.
