WESTERN BUREAU:

Justice Ingrid Mangatal is presiding over the 16 cases that are listed for trial in the Michealmas sitting of the St. James Circuit Court, which began on Monday in Montego Bay.

In officially opening the four-week court, Justice Mangatal said she was looking forward to the usual co-operation of attorneys and other persons involved in the cases before her.

Satisfied with jury

"I expect that you will be properly prepared for each case and that you will advise clients who are guilty to plead guilty so as not to waste the court's time," she said.

She also expressed her satisfaction with the number of persons who turned up for jury duty and encouraged them to see the opportunity as a learning experience, as opposed to something that has taken them away from their work or other things that they could have been doing.

Justice Mangatal encouraged them to live up to the oath that they will take as jurors, and asked that they be honest and objective in order to make the right decisions.

"It is a travesty when an innocent person is found guilty but it is an even worse travesty when a guilty man is set free," she told the jurors.

The 16 cases include six murders, two cases of death by dangerous driving, two wounding and six sexually-related offences, one of which is a case of bestiality. Three of the remaining five were carried over from the Easter sitting of the court.