We note the call made on Wednesday by Mrs. Justice Carol Beswick at the opening of the Easter Session of the Home Circuit Court, for citizens to "galvanise ourselves into action to fight and control this evil" - crime.
As the crime rate has escalated over the years, it has become almost a ritual for judges opening or closing a Home Circuit Session to make similar appeals to citizens to help fight crime. Yet, at the end of each Home Circuit Session, more cases are untouched, and have to be traversed, than cases that are tried. For example, the Hilary Session opened on January 7 with 239 cases on the trial list and when it ended on March 22, only 51 had been disposed of, all of 188 having been traversed to this session.
According to Mrs. Justice Beswick, "The judges remain committed to the high standards of justice." A laudable reassurance, but judges must commit to much more than that. They must be firm enough to ensure that trials take place as scheduled, and not to grant adjournments willy-nilly, lawyers having agreed to firm trial dates for their clients.
Specifically, Chief Justice Lensley Wolfe, as he has done in the past, needs to take a hard look at why the cases which were traversed from the previous term were not tried and act to make a serious dent in the 323 cases on the current list.
Surely, the backlog did not result from the absence of jurors, who in recent times, have been turning up to do their civic duty.
The crux of the matter is that the four criminal courts now in operation just are not enough. It seems that there should be at least two more, and of course, the extra judges to operate them.
And while he is about it, the Chief Justice in consultation with the Jamaican Bar Association, the Police and other parties involved, should put machinery in place for trials in serious criminal cases to be completed at most 18 months from the time a suspect is arrested. It is not uncommon these days to have trial of felonies pending for two years and more, with all the implications for the accused and the witnesses.
Many a trial has had to be adjourned because of the absence of witnesses, it is true. But the blame for this is again more the fault of weak and accommodating judges and poor administration of the system, than of the witnesses themselves. For bear in mind that the same witnesses did turn up at the preliminary inquiries in the Resident Magistrates' Courts, based on which the cases are sent to the Home Circuit Court for trial. But the fact is that they go to court day after day, only to be told that this trial can't go on because a lawyer is absent or that trial has to be postponed because the prosecution or the defence is not ready. Invariably, there has been no contingency planning to bring another trial forward and so whittle down the backlog.
So witnesses are frustrated with their time being wasted day after day, and get the impression that the authorities are not serious about dispensing justice.
The best way to galvanise citizens to fight crime is to ensure not only that the standards of justice are high, but that justice is dispensed speedily. This will facilitate the police and citizens in their co-operative effort to fight crime.
