CAYMAN ISLANDS – A nine-year-old criminal case against several former employees of the Tax Administration Jamaica was recently dismissed by the court after too many adjournments and an abandoned trial. This case was brought by a government department with the permission of the office of the Director of Prosecutions and ended without any adjudication of innocence or guilt.
For nearly a decade, those charged had their lives on hold. Suspicion is insufficient to convict or punish persons. It is our rule of law. If this were the case, Jamaica and many other countries may be without a leader or other prominent persons.
Regrettably this was not an isolated case but a regular daily occurrence in many courts by many police or prosecutors in various forms. Ask any accused person who was on remand in crowded prisons, police stations or bailed release about their journey into the heart of judicial darkness and their release without so much as an apology, dismissal of those responsible or equal compensation.
The zenith of this reckless failure by the Jamaican Ministry of Justice was openly on display last year when a mentally ill man was released from prison after 50 years and given J$120 million.
This was not only a Jamaican phenomenon but a regular feature of an inherited, colonial system of justice that went on to modernization in the United Kingdom but not in their former and present possessions.
The Cayman Islands is awash in this type of injustice. In at least one case of police and court bail for five years, a young man almost lost his life to the prevalent mass incarceration, until the case was dropped the day before trial. The evidence against the accused had not changed throughout three different prosecutors before the ultimate arbiter of justice saw fit to end the gravest injustice. Often times, when there is delay in discontinuing another mindless prosecution, the judge or jury will do what the prosecution have failed to do after much resources have been expended to no purpose. This will resonate with criminal defence lawyers who daily witness this tragedy.
Often these situations are created by all in prosecutors or police who have decided to charge an innocent person only to realize and sometimes cover insufficient evidence or law before reversing their weak, earlier decisions.
Someone or something should be held accountable.
One idea has come from the Cayman Islands in the case of Bernardo where the DPP was held liable for costs because of the delay in coming to a decision to stop the proceeding. In that case, the common sense and widely regarded judge ordered the prosecution to pay defence costs for the delay. There should also be an enquiry into the case of specific prosecutors who should be personally liable for costs so that the people do not end up paying for the inadequacy of others. The DPP in those islands recently confirmed that there has been no enquiry of prosecutors in these matters or sanction.
Some are more equal than others.
This is a good step but not a bridge over the River Rubicon protecting a failed legal system and bureaucracy. The real change would be monetary compensation not for some in some cases but for all persons who have suffered at the hands of incompetent police and prosecution as well as a complete overhaul of our fractured system of justice.
The institutional oversight of prosecutions, like in England, would not only be a wondrous thing, but a reduction in cases as well .
Woe be a desperate government that only follows the advice of those selfsame individuals who have delayed justice.
