By Franklin McKnight
The case of a schizophrenic youth charged with the brutal murder of a homeless man, in Ocho Rios in March, has been highlighting the slackness in the Jamaican court and medical systems.
Jonah Robinson, 19 years old, has been suffering mental illness since age 14 and the court correctly wants to assess his mental state before making decisions in the trial. The youth has appeared before the courts on four occasions in the last two months and the court is yet to get a proper report.
On the first two occasions the youth appeared in the St Ann’s Bay courthouse, the court was told the psychiatrist was absent or consecutive weeks from the clinic at the hospital and hence the youth was not seen. Forget for the moment what this might have meant to other patients in need. On the most recent appearance before the court last week the magistrate was told the report was inadequate. You would have thought that by now, since such an examination and report are not as infrequent a case as the eclipse of the moon, the medical system would have generated a useful report for the court. Even when the medical system does reports for stab and gunshot wounds for cases, it takes months for a medical report to reach the courts.
In this case, the youth who has severe self-inflicted eye injuries and a mental condition for which the police lock ups are ill equipped to deal, this Jamaican young man charged with murder is continuing to suffer needlessly. At the same time his case ties up the system that is already backed up on itself. And we talk about justice, rights and have big chat about how important it is above all else to ascent to the nirvana of a Caribbean Court!
The youth remains in lock up for another month, until June 17, when those responsible may fall down on the job again over this poor little black boy.
