Govt determined to amend bail law
By NOELLE NICOLLS
Tribune Staff Reporter
nnicolls@tribunemedia.net:
THE government is determined to amend the law to extend the period of time suspected murderers can be held in Her Majesty's Prison without trial, despite the criticism from some in the legal community, said Attorney General John Delaney.
He said so responding to speaker after speaker at the Bahamian Forum who lambasted the legal system for allowing too many charged people to go free on bail. The public discussion forum was hosted by psychiatrist Dr David Allen.
"Our circumstances have outgrown our present system," said Mr Delaney. He said the government had to respond to the demands of the time.
Currently, a person charged with murder or another serious offence can be granted bail if they have not been brought to trial in a reasonable amount of time, based on their constitutional rights.
Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham has indicated that his administration plans to specify in law that a reasonable amount of time would be three years. The effort is aimed at cutting down the number of those charged who re-offend while on bail, and assuage public outcry.
The government's efforts were fully endorsed by Commissioner of Police Ellison Greenslade, who said: "It is time we stop releasing people on bail.
"We are very surprised some days to find a person lying dead in our streets murdered by a person who is on bail for murder and the victim is on bail for murder."
He said he had no shortage of examples of charged offenders who posed a threat to society being out on bail; reoffending while out on bail; or being murdered while out on bail.
There was an arrest made of a Bahamian man who was investigated based on photographs on the social networking website, Facebook. He posed in photographs dressed in a bullet-proof vest, with a marijuana cigarette in his mouth, an AK-47 in one hand and two pistols in the other. Upon investigation, police recovered the illegal guns and drugs. Commissioner Greenslade said if he were asked where that person is today, the answer would be out on bail.
The police recovered $2 million stored in a house in a drug-related incident that resulted in a prosecution. The man charged was a victim of murder while out on bail. The same fate met a man charged in a drug-related incident, where $300,000 worth of cash proceeds of crime were recovered.
Commissioner Greenslade said the obligation of the police was to arrest and charge suspected criminals. He said the police had a high rate of detection and was doing its part. Charges were filed by the police in 103 of 147 cases of illegal weapons since the start of the year. Charges were filed by the police in 35 of 48 murder cases.
Mr Delaney said the Bahamas is experiencing a crime wave on top of having a court system in backlog with laws that are outdated. He said a complex web of problems was working against efforts to control crime, however there has been no other time in history when the government has contributed so "much capital resources to the court system."
In order to solve the problem of a backlog, the government is seeking to double the capacity of the Supreme Court so more cases can he heard simultaneously.
This, Mr Delaney, said involved increasing the physical space, the number of judges and the number of jurors.
He said it is a misperception that only 12 jurors were needed for a criminal matter in the Supreme Court. He said for every 12 jurors, a pool of 50 was needed. He said the Bahamian public has a role to play, by turning up for duty.
Public participant, Felicity Ingraham, said there was also a problem of unethical defence attorneys, who manipulated the system to get criminals out on bail.
"There is a small group of attorneys, someone who is likely to commit a murder knows the attorneys, who they can pay a $5,000 retainer that in 18 months they will be back out on the street. These attorneys know how to work the system, because the system is extremely overcrowded, and the laws haven't been changed," said Ms Ingraham.
"There are certain attorneys who wouldn't do it, but there are certain attorneys who would, and they will look for every loophole to get these people out. Some of them are not even Bahamian and they don't care," she said, to a round of applause from the commissioner and Attorney General.
"I know someone who stabbed a friend of mine 52 times. This was just three years ago and I see him on the street hailing me and I don't understand and I don't necessarily feel safe. It was a domestic issue. I heard this guy before talking about what attorney he is going to go to," said Ms Ingraham.
July 09, 2010
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