Gonsalves to judges: Don't let defence lawyers control courts

PRIME Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines Dr Ralph Gonsalves believes criminal defence lawyers are being allowed to control the Caribbean's criminal justice system for monetary gain "under the guise of protecting the rights of the accused person."

He said judges and magistrates must hold themselves accountable for the continuation of this.

He was speaking at the final day of the Caricom symposium on crime at the Hyatt Regency, Port of Spain on Tuesday.

During his speech, he spoke about what he called a "narrow, economistic argument" that poverty is the main cause of crime.

Many in the audience applauded, but Gonsalves followed this up by saying, "Some of the people who applauded me are lawyers...so I come to that."

He said everyone knows that "the oxygen of the legal profession is money," and that lawyers use delays in the court system to their benefit.

"...In order to have trials adjourned and adjourned and adjourned and they complain how long the trial takes."

He said some complaints are warranted because at times, the issue is a lack of resources.

"...And I'm not denying that. But too many judges have allowed too many lawyers who practise criminal law to control the court system under the guise of protecting the rights of the accused person, who, in fact, is entitled constitutionally to the presumption of innocence, to a fair trial before an independent tribunal within a reasonable time."

He said nobody would wish to undermine any of those constitutional protections.

But, he added, the protections cannot mean "you must take a long time over a trial and give adjournment upon adjournment and witnesses migrate and memories fade and a lot of times you have to withdraw the prosecution – because delay is part of the defence, and judges ought to know that."

He said the families of victims neither understand nor appreciate any of this.

The people who complain about delays in the justice system, he said, are within their rights.

"And if a politician opens his mouth and says it, they say you're interfering in the independence of the judiciary.

"Justice is not a cloistered virtue, and just as I am subject to reasonable criticism, judges themselves and magistrates must be subjected to reasonable criticism...It is not a contempt of court so to do."

Speaking to the media after Gonsalves' speech, Chief Justice Ivor Archie said judiciaries are not immune to criticism.

"I don't think any judiciary in the region, including ours, is doing what it needs to do perfectly.

"But I think one of the things that people often lose sight of is that the judiciary depends on input from so many other stakeholders to do its job. So I think we all have to be performing optimally if you are really going to improve the justice system."

He said there was new legislation in the works to speed up the criminal justice system, "including the elimination of preliminary inquiries.

"I take the point that Prime Minister Gonsalves made about the multiplicity of adjournments, but sometimes that happens because there are necessary inputs for all processes, such as forensic evidence and statements from the police, location of witnesses...So there has to be a balance between the rights of the accused and the rights of victims.

"Do we always get that balance perfect?

"I suppose not. But to the extent that he has spoken about more robust case management, I think that is something that we do have to look at.

"I think other agencies like the Forensic Sciences Centre, for example, they need their help, and they need resources so that we can have all the matters, all the evidence and all the inputs come to us in a reasonable time."

Speaking to Newsday on Tuesday afternoon, head of the Criminal Bar Association Israel Khan, SC, said he wholeheartedly agreed with Gonsalves. He said many lawyers, indeed, "take advantage of the system.

"I agree with that, I support that and I support him."

He said the attorneys general and chief justices of Caricom countries must also be called upon to act on this.

However, Khan took issue with comments Gonsalves made on day one of the symposium.

On magistrates granting bail to people arrested and charged for murder, Gonsalves slammed this, saying, “How can you go and give bail to someone charged for murder? Let’s be serious! I saw the numbers from The Bahamas. Where do those judges live, Mars?”

Khan told Newsday for a regional leader to publicly say something like this was both an embarrassment and a disappointment.

"There is a constitutional right that an accused for murder can make an application for bail."

He said leaders are focusing on "the wrong direction" and should instead work on ways to alleviate poverty across the Caribbean, and assist police with arresting "people with arms and ammunition and cocaine and money laundering."

Khan later issued a press release saying said he was "flabbergasted and deeply disturbed with the utterances from some of the Caricom leaders that judges in Trinidad and Tobago who grant bail to accused on murder charges are contributing to the escalation of crimes.

“It appears that the politicians who are responsible for enacting legislation and devising workable crime plans to defeat the scourge of criminality in the region are engaging in a blame game and shifting their lack of competence unto the judiciary.

"The main concern of the political rulers in TT should be to ensure that the principles of social justice are protected and promoted and that the operation of the economic system should result in the material resources of the country being so distributed to subserve the common good, and that there should be adequate means of livelihood for all, and labour should not be exploited or forced by economic necessity to operation in inhumane conditions, but there should be opportunity for advancement on the basis of recognition of merit, ability and integrity."

He questioned why Caricom leaders are not "zeroing into money laundering and white-collar crimes.

"Are they protecting the parasitic oligarchy in their respective countries? Is it that all men are equals but some are more equal than others?

"I call upon the Law Association of TT, the Southern Assembly of Lawyers and most of all Chief Justice Ivor Archie to refute the disgusting statement that granting bail to murder accused is contributing to criminality in TT."

He said he will have an emergency meeting with his association to discuss the "unwarranted attack on the judiciary."