JURORS WHO are served summonses and appear for duty but are prevented from serving will be compensated for their time and effort if suggestions from a sub-committee to oversee the recommendations of the National Committee on Crime and Violence are implemented.
The persons would also be reimbursed for their expenses.
"It's a consideration whether to adjust provisions to include payment of reimbursables for members of the jury who are summoned, duly appeared but are unable to serve," Canute Brown, consultant to the Ministry of Justice said. In addition, there are calls to increase the number of bailiffs and their assistants which are attached to the courts, removing the need for police officers serving summonses.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The recommendations are to be submitted to the Government tomorrow as attempts are made to clean up the island's flawed jury system which now includes an inadequate jury pool, persons who were repeatedly selected for duty, and accusations that the police are involved in a system of handpicking persons for jury duty.
The Jamaica Justice Report (2002), a publication of local human rights group, Jamaicans for Justice, cites designated coroner Norman Harrison as reporting that 'some jurors had been serving on and off for up to 10 years,' in what has been called a pool of 'professional jurors' for the island's Coroner's Court.
To address this the sub-committee had offered the suggestion of a reduction in the time between which the electoral list is updated which had resulted in a narrow range from which to select persons to serve.
At present, the list is renewed every four years.
"There is the suggestion to reduce the time to two years instead of four now that there is continuous registration so that there is a fresh pool of persons from which to select," he said.
"In the Coroner's Court, it (the review) would also be looking at how the Coroner's Act is structured," Mr. Brown said further of an even wider range to the suggested improvements.
The Justice Consultative Comittee was set up last December as part of a national initiative against crime.
