The Editor, Sir:

Referring to your news item headed 'Threat to the IT sector' in the Sunday Gleaner of December 10, concerning the difficulty of getting American victims of a lottery scam to come back to Jamaica to give evidence, I wish to point out that this problem can be overcome in two ways, other than a video deposition.

These are a deposition is taken in the United States by a registered professional reporter, who swears the witness before an attorney for the prosecution who leads the evidence and an attorney for the defendant who would cross-examine. The transcript would come to the Jamaican courts and admitted in evidence.

The other (easier) means is, a telephone deposition, where the witness in the United States is sworn by the registered professional reporter, and by a speakerphone arrangement, the attorneys in Jamaica for the prosecution and for the defence examine and cross-examine the witness. The evidence is recorded and certified by the reporter and sent to the Jamaican court.

My being a registered professional reporter with the National Court Reporters Association in the U.S. (an international body), over the last 35 years I have taken depositions in Jamaica on behalf of at least 10 states of the United States, where the attorneys from the U.S. would examine and cross-examine. The transcript is certified by me and sent to the appropriate court, and is accepted and acted on. These are cases where the witness in Jamaica is either unable or reluctant to go to the U.S. to give evidence.

Fear of arrest

A few years ago, I took the deposition of a Jamaican bartender who worked on one of the cruise ships that come here. He was facing a possible charge of rape of one of the passengers. The attorneys for the woman and for the cruise line came from the U.S. to Ocho Rios to take the deposition because the bartender feared that if he went to Miami for the deposition he might be arrested.

I have taken telephonic depositions by speakerphone arrangement, with the witness in my office and the attorneys in the U.S. processing the evidence, which I record, certify, and send to the particular court in the U.S.

We have had a third method, where there are written interrogatories, The questions are pretyped and sent to me. I ask the witness the question and record both question and answer. The resultant transcript is certified and sent to the U.S.

Whichever method is used, the snag would seem to be for the Jamaican court to accept the transcript as evidence and act on it. But the evidence of these American witnesses should be available to the local courts by one of these means.

I am, etc.,

SAMUEL A. FITZ-HENLEY

Retired Supreme Court Reporter

P.O. Box 799

Kingston 8