There are 177 inquests pending

Feb 13, 2010 News

At present there are 177 pending inquests being conducted at the various magistrates’ courts across Guyana and the magistrates are working feverishly to reduce this number, according to Acting Chief Magistrate Melissa Robertson.
The acting Chief Magistrate explained that of the 177 inquests, 163 are pending for fixture, 14 are part heard matters and 17 were disposed of. Of the 17 which were disposed of, three were done in the Georgetown Magisterial District, three in the Corentyne Magisterial District, one was done in the West Berbice District, seven in the West Demerara Magisterial District, and three in the East Demerara Magisterial District. No inquests were done in the Essequibo and Berbice Magisterial Districts.
Of the 163 that are pending, Georgetown has 10, Corentyne has 19, Berbice 14, West Berbice nine, Essequibo 39, East Demerara has an astonishing 61 and West Demerara 11.
The Chief Magistrate explained that there is a procedure before an inquest is ordered. She said that the first step is with the police, who would prepare a file with all the relevant information.
That file would be forwarded to the Director of Public Prosecutions for legal advice. Once the DPP recommends that the inquests should be done the files are forwarded to the courts and the magistrates would take over from that point.
She said that once all the information is present in the file all parties are summoned to court for the inquest.
The inquest which takes the form of a trial is to establish or determine how, when and why an individual died. In some cases it is also done to determine an individual’s identity. An inquest is usually done when the person’s death remains in doubt even after a post mortem examination was conducted.
Several persons are part of an inquest. These would include the magistrate, prosecutor and in some cases lawyers. These are independent judicial officers. They would investigate all of what was compiled in the file by the police.
It was further stated that an inquest should be done when a doctor had not seen or had been attending to the person within 14 days before or after the death.
Some legal officers have stated that the police are selective when dealing with inquests. After the inquest has been completed the person who is tried would know if he or she is at fault for the person’s death.
Some prominent lawyers are of the view that inquests do not apply to everyday persons, but are selective.
One lawyer said that the magistrates are stressed with doing their daily matters and inquests place another burden on them, they contended. The lawyer explained that although it is mandated by law for an inquest to be done into every unnatural and unexplained death the judiciary and magistracy lack the manpower.
He said that magistrates and judges daily work load already stretch out the court and adding inquests would only deepen the problems within the judiciary.

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There are 177 inquests pending

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