The establishment of a pre-trial chamber in the criminal justice system holds great opportunities in clearing backlogs and reducing the prison population, Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ Judge Jacob Wit said last evening.
Such a system, he explained will aid in the swift determination of cases to be heard as the chamber will have the power to sift out weak cases and keep stronger ones. This process can then be used to engage in plea bargaining while others go to trial.
Justice Wit made the suggestion as he delivered the feature lecture on “Rethinking Criminal Justice” at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre.
“In my proposition, we create a pre-trial chamber that should consist of a high court judge assisted by some master or even magistrates… The chamber should have timelines that should be abided by. The chamber should give bail in a transparent manner, following guidelines that should be published. On top of that, they should monitor the type of evidence in these cases…”, Wit said as he outlined the functioning of such a system.
He added that the chamber should also be able to address requests of defendants and have the power to supervise both prosecution and defence to move cases forward and protect the quality of evidence.
Justice Wit in his presentation pointed out that Guyana has a high number of cases being thrown out on the acceptance of no-case submission arguments. With the pre-trial chamber in place, he explained that following a review of the case, it can be determined years ahead before a remanded prisoner goes to trial.
“It struck me that quite a lot of criminal cases in Guyana get kicked out at the no-case submission stage meaning the prosecution was not able to produce sufficient evidence even before the defendants have to say anything. You might hear a pre-trial chamber would have taken out that case long before … why keep the accused in prison… This is a process of sifting out the weaker cases and keeping the stronger ones the latter then should be considered for plea bargaining and the rest should go to trial,” he underscored.
The CCJ judge highlighted delays in the criminal system here in Guyana and noted that persons on remand spend jail time longer than some sentences handed down.
“It also happens sometimes in pre-trial detention, it lasts longer than the maximum of what was your sentence for the alleged offence that has nothing to do with justice. It is what the good Bible calls an abomination…” he stressed.
On this note, he stated that accused who are on remand should be tried within a year to six months while accused freed of pre-trial imprisonment via bail should be tried within 18 months to two years.
Conscious of the Caribbean region’s reputation for slow implementation of new systems, Justice Wit said this has nothing do with civil or common law but rather “organising your pre-trial phase to be brave enough to take certain decisions.”
He was quick to indicate that in this process nothing prevents an accused from being rearrested if more evidence surfaces.
Justice Jo-Ann Barlow, who sat as part of the panel, stressed that there cannot be proper implementation of shorter trial periods if the number of judicial officers and support staff is not enough.
“It is by the grace of the Almighty that we manage to keep the system afloat,” she stated. Members of the judiciary have routinely complained about the shortage of judges and other judicial officers. The Judicial Service Commission has not been reconstituted since 2017.
Justice Wit also floated the idea of Guyana implementing Judge-alone trials to further improve on its delivery of justice and clearing its backlog of over 300 cases.
“[There] are little things we look at but there are more countries that are using our judge-alone trial and I personally have been a judge alone in my former jurisdiction. I have done more than 90 cases as a judge alone for the most serious criminal cases and that works…” Justice Wit said.
Director of Public Prosecution Shalimar Ali-Hack called on the responsible bodies to amend the legislation to allow for judge-alone trials in the rethinking of the criminal justice system. She said that it is time Guyana moves in this direction.
Ali-Hack who participated in the panel said that “Judge-alone trials are more suited for hearings of matters [such as money laundering and cybercrime and receiving evidence from experts] … Judge-alone trials will produce faster processing of the case and reduce backlogs.”
