Make kidnapping a capital offence

THE EDITOR: I remind the public at large of a commentary headlined “Nightmare that is justice,” written by Debbie Jacob and published in the Newsday of April 15, 2016. She wrote:

“A copy of Israel Khan’s address at the public consultation on prison reform on April 6, now hangs in my office because no one I know has so eloquently summed up the problems of the justice system in this country as Khan, the chairman of the Legal Aid and Advisory Authority.”

She quoted my statement that “at this point in time for many of our citizens life in this country has become nasty, brutish and short and our criminal justice system is about to collapse (completely) if the powers that be keep talking and talking and nothing substantial is done to stop the rot.”

A Newsday editorial on March 31 under the headline “Prioritising justice” also quoted me:

“The intractable problem of delayed trials has been analysed and dissected ad nauseam without any significant impact on the problem. From judges to prisoners to prosecutors, everyone agrees that the system is dysfunctional and requires urgent attention. Yet the problem endures.”

Jacob added her own words in her commentary:

“We are a country that likes to carry its penchant for liming into the national forum where we talk about crucial issues ad nauseam and never seek solutions for them. And this has to stop.”

Jacob pointed out that I stated in my address at the public consultation on prison reform:

“It is a scandalous state of affairs to have 700 citizens in the nation’s prisons on murder charges and they must wait for ten years to get a trial. It is an assault on the presumption of innocence.”

She also carried my emphatic conclusion:

“Shame on the nation which cannot protect its women and children and its citizens from fear of being murdered. Shame on a nation which allows its prison to be a hellhole.”

On the heels of the brutal rape and murder of Andrea Bharatt and Ashanti Riley I cry shame on all our politicians, especially those in Parliament, for playing selfish politics with the lives of our children and women.

I have been preaching ad nauseam that the entire criminal justice system should be overhauled and more resources given to the police, DPP and the judiciary.

I have stated openly at meetings with the Chief Justice in the presence of the DPP and Justice Paula Mae Weeks (now President of the country) and others that the justice system has failed the citizens of the country and pointed out that if nothing is done to apprehend heinous criminals and expedite criminal trials our criminal justice system will collapse. And this was a few years ago.

My comments fell on deaf ears.

We have now reached the stage where it is necessary to make kidnapping and possession of certain types of firearms capital offences.

Set up a gun court and expedite firearm offences and kidnapping into first, second and third degrees. Reserve the death penalty for the first degree kidnapping (like kidnapping to commit an indictable offence, for example rape, and possession of assault rifles).

Expedite these matters once they are in court. And appeals to the Privy Council must be abolished. Let the CCJ be our final court of appeal.

I suggest that Prime Minister Dr Rowley, as current chairman of Caricom, place those issues before the other Caribbean jurisdictions.

Give the vicious accused fair trials all the way up to the CCJ and if the convictions remain intact then hang them.

ISRAEL B RAJAH-KHAN SC

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