By Sue-Ann Wayow
AS cricket legend Brian Lara calls for a safer Trinidad and Tobago and pundits say that a certain ethnic group may be the target of crime in Aranguez, murders, home invasions and robberies continue through the country.
Two weeks ago at the Regional Symposium: Violence a Public Health Issue – the Crime Challenge t at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Port of Spain, a judge at the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) Justice Jacob Wit said a thorough overhaul of the criminal justice system in Trinidad and Tobago was needed.
He said a “merciless look” was needed at current systems.
Wit was contributing to a panel discussion.
He said, “Small piecemeal changes cannot do the work. There needs to be very profound look at our criminal justice system.”
Wit added, “It needs firm and robust changes.”
One of the major issues is accused persons waiting for years to stand trial, he said.
Alluding to Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley’s statements that there should be no bail for murder accused, Wit said there was previously no bail for murder charges because trials were done then in a reasonable time.
“The times are not reasonable to any measure,” Wit said.
He had three suggestions.
“Before you get to the trial, there must be a sifting process. If cases simply do not have sufficient evidence, they need to end in a release… We cannot keep people in jail while you know there is not sufficient evidence and there must be some guidance from a pre-trial judge to get through the process.”
There also needed to be much more plea bargaining and 70% of the cases in the US were plea bargained, Wit said.
The last suggestion was to improve and broaden the judge-alone trials which could be done in different ways.
He said, “Take Trinidad and Tobago. Unfortunately, there is a very low detection rate of all these murders, it’s lower than 20 %. Of those 20% there is an acquittal rate as I have been told of more than 60% or 70%. So very low conviction rate on top of that. It is not a way to run a criminal justice system.”
Acquittals in a normal functioning system should not be more than 10%, Wit said.
To address the issues of the CCJ, the CCJ Academy was planning a conference with a focus on the criminal justice system and its reformation in October.
The invitation was thrown out to all in the justice system including police officers to attend the event which will be held in Barbados.
