Dear Editor,
I am not a legal person but a common man who like the jurors in a criminal matter must decide on guilt or innocence based on the evidence provided in the particular case.
The recent murder case which saw the termination (nolle prosequi) of legal proceedings by the Director of Public Prosecutions against two Canadian girls for the murder of a 64 year old man is a slap on our justice system. It is clear from all the evidence that there must have been even a conspiracy to commit the murder or being accessories to it. Therefore it boggles the mind as to the termination of the prosecution.
I have spent 17 years fighting for youths doing what is right and advocating social justice in every sphere of life and it is much to the public and my disappointment that such an injustice should be perpetrated. The law must send a certain message that certain acts cannot be condoned in society. But what is the message are we sending to the public and our youths? That it is Ok to brutally murder and the justice system will be sympathetic to you? This decision is morally and legally wrong when we look at other cases where persons were convicted for murder based on a conspiracy. An example is the recent case where two women were given life imprisonment for conspiracy to murder a US citizen in Berbice. Another example is the Tain murder of a man where a maid and the man’s wife are charged for conspiracy to commit murder and are on remand.
Accessories are as guilty as the principal in any criminal matter and charges should have been recommended by the DPP to suit the facts of the case presented by the prosecution. This matter should not have been subjected to nolle prosequi. In criminal law, a conspiracy is an agreement between two or more persons to commit a crime at some time in the future and in this case the courts should have been asked to decide whether the intention to commit the murder by the two girls was established since the actions after the murder would have suggested that the intention existed and continued.
This does not speak well about how we dispense justice in the eyes of the public and our young generation. Is it that the legal system failed or the enforcers have failed the system?
Yours faithfully,
Gobin Harbhajan
RDC Councillor-Region 6