Tyrone Reid, Staff Reporter
Jenni Campbell, Gleaner managing editor, presents the Silver Pen Award to Glen Cruickshank, winner for December 2005, during a ceremony at The Gleaner's headquarters, central Kingston, on Tuesday. -NORMAN GRINDLEY/DEPUTY CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER
THE GLEANER'S last Silver Pen winner for 2005 is Glen Cruickshank, attorney at law.
Mr. Cruickshank won the final award, which is given to writers who pen the letter of the month, with his letter of the day 'Let's debate the justice system' that was published on the last day of the year - December 31, 2005.
The attorney was dumbfounded after he received his plaque and the prestigious silver pen at The Gleaner's North Street offices on Thursday.
"Well it came as a complete surprise that a letter written by me would have been selected to be the letter of the day let alone the letter of the month," he said while unwrapping his writing implement.
The 30-year attorney-at-law and past student of York Castle High told The Gleaner that he wrote the letter out of natural impulse in response to unsavoury comments being bandied about the state of the judicial process after the acquittal of Senior Superintendent Reneto Adams and the other officers involved in the Kraal trial plus the earlier acquittal of three police officers charged with the murder of a young man from Spanish Town.
SUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
In his letter Mr. Cruickshank, who did a short teaching stint at his alma mater, reasoned that none of the negative views expressed considered whether the prosecution presented sufficient evidence to convince the jurors beyond a reasonable doubt that the men were guilty of murder.
The avid reader of The Gleaner made it abundantly clear that he was not defending the justice system but merely aimed to put things into perspective.
"We have a judicial system that is working, there are deficiencies in it (but) let us not attack it but let us sit down like intelligent people and try to remedy it because we are the beneficiaries of it," reasoned Mr. Cruickshank.
The attorney-at-law, who studied at the Inns of Court School of Law in London, England during the 1970s, is calling on the Minister of Justice to expedite the promised reforms in the justice system. "I long for the day when the placards we see on evening news stating we want justice will become obsolete," emphasised Mr. Cruickshank.
