(Jamaica Gleaner) The creaking justice system is burdened under the weight of over 400,000 cases waiting to be tried.
Resident Magistrate’s courts, the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal account for these cases, with no mention of the thousands languishing before the petty session bench.
It is a problem that all stakeholders agree must be addressed urgently if the voices demanding justice are to go silent.
Lawyers point to criminal cases where persons remain in custody awaiting trial for more than four years.
The numbers tell the worrying tale and leave the public to wonder if the local authorities know the often-repeated truism, “justice delayed is justice denied”.
Absent witnesses, fear and a culture of delay are being blamed for the backlog.
The Hilary session of the Home Circuit Court in downtown Kingston opened on January 7, with 376 cases listed for trial. That list had 206 murder cases and 124 sexual offence cases.
When the session ended on Friday, March 26, it was disclosed that 61 cases had been disposed of and 396 traversed to the next session, which starts on April 7.
That is a problem which Jamaica’s first female chief justice, Zaila McCalla, appears determined to address.
Stern warning
Opening the Hilary session, McCalla issued a strong warning to the major players in the justice system.
“There will no longer be a situation in the courts where witnesses turn up only to be told that the cases cannot be tried.”
The chief justice also advised defence lawyers not to set several cases for trial on the same day.
She said there were now four additional criminal courts, and the expectation was that when a case came before the court, it would be tried.
According to McCalla, there was going to be a change in the Gun Court list, and the culture of delay in that court would no longer take place.
She announced that plans were to be put in place for there to be case-management conferences in criminal cases in an effort to shorten criminal trials.
The case-management conferences began in January and are held on Fridays.
Three persons, Lisa Palmer-Hamilton, senior deputy director of public prosecutions, Nadine Flowers, Crown counsel, and Howard Hood, case-progression officer, have been given the responsibility for the preparation of the criminal cases.