Dear Editor,
Former Chancellor of the Judiciary Cecil Kennard has chided a city magistrate for imposing a light sentence on two youths aged 20 and 21. They were given a total of 150 hours community service after they were found guilty of robbing a business house of cell phones worth $8,968,000 on July 26 last year. The maximum penalty for the offence charged is life imprisonment, and according to media reports the presiding magistrate was known to have imposed stiffer penalties on other persons found guilty of similar offences.
Chancellor Kennard who was a prosecutor for decades, and served as DPP in Antigua, was also a presiding judge, Court of Appeal judge and head of the judiciary. He is concerned about the unreasonable penalty the magistrate imposed and suggested that the prosecutor consult the DPP to consider appealing the decision.
This prompted me to research whether there are sentencing guidelines in Guyana for judges and magistrates to follow, and regrettably there are none. In fact Trinidad and Tobago is the only country in the region that has sentencing guidelines. There were discussions in the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (ECSC) to introduce sentencing guidelines in the nine circuits of the ECSC. In fact it should have started with the introduction of the Criminal Division of the ECSC, but it never got off the ground. The safeguard against that is usually via an appeal by the DPP where possible.
In Belize, the Chief Justice, Guyanese Kenneth Benjamin is now compiling guidelines to usher in a plea bargaining type of process. In that Central American country, unlike other jurisdictions in the Caribbean community, a single judge can hear murder and attempted murder cases without a jury.
It is my view that presiding judges and magistrates should send a strong message to persons convicted of serious offences by imposing penalties fitting the crimes of which they were convicted.
Perhaps steps should be taken by the Chancellor and the Attorney General to take steps to work on sentencing guidelines which should be followed by presiding judges and magistrates as is done in the United Kingdom and several other jurisdictions in the Commonwealth.
Yours faithfully,
Oscar Ramjeet
