Only one guilty verdict in 25 cases

Apr 09, 2014 News

Local prosecution continues to take a battering with the revelation that the jury returned only one guilty verdict out of a total of 19 matters where verdicts were reached in the country’s high courts during the recently concluded criminal assizes.
Information coming out of the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), reveals that there were a total of 25 completed matters in the three assizes, Demerara, Berbice and Essequibo.
There were a staggering eight not guilty verdicts and six changes of plea to lesser offences, while the DPP nolle prosequi in writing three of the cases.

The Georgetown High Court

The DPP in a detailed statement revealed that for the Demerara January criminal session, which commenced on January 15 and ended on March 28, only 18 out of the 233 cases listed to be heard were completed.
Of the 18 completed cases, 16 were presented and two of them were nolle prosequi by the DPP.
According to the DPP, of the 16 matters presented, there were a total of 11 verdicts and five pleas.
“For the eleven matters where there were verdicts there was one guilty verdict, eight not guilty verdicts and two hung jury verdicts. Five accused who were indicted for Murder, pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of Manslaughter,” the DPP stated in a press release yesterday.
The Demerara January 2014 Assizes was presided over by four judges, Justices Franklin Holder, William Ramlall, James Bovell-Drakes and Navindra Singh.
Justice Holder completed five matters. Of these five matters, four were for the offence of Murder and one was for Rape. In two of the Murder trials, the accused pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of Manslaughter and were sentenced to 18 years and 10 years imprisonment respectively.
With respect to a third Murder matter, the accused was acquitted after the jury returned a unanimous verdict of not guilty of Murder and not guilty of Manslaughter. In a fourth Murder trial, the two accused were ordered to face a retrial after the jury returned with a split decision of six guilty and six not guilty.
The accused in the Rape trial was acquitted after the jury returned a verdict of not guilty.
At the same time Justice William Ramlall disposed of three matters also for the offence of Murder. In all three matters, the Trial Judge upheld No Case Submissions and directed the jury to return formal verdicts of not guilty.
In one of these matters in which two accused were indicted for the offence of Murder, the charge against the number one accused was discontinued by the Director of Public Prosecutions because of insufficient evidence.
Meanwhile, in the one Murder trial before Justice Bovell-Drakes, which continued from the October 2013 criminal assizes, the accused was ordered to face a retrial after the jury returned a hung jury verdict.
Justice Singh disposed of seven cases for the offence of Murder in which there were four guilty verdicts and three not guilty verdicts.
In the first Murder trial, the accused was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment after the jury returned a guilty verdict for the lesser offence of Manslaughter.
In three other murder trials in which the accused pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of Manslaughter, two of these accused were sentenced to 10 years imprisonment , while a third accused was sentenced to a total of 47 years imprisonment on two counts of Murder, each being 21 years and 26 years respectively.
In three other Murder cases, the accused were acquitted after Justice Singh upheld no case submissions and directed the jury to return formal verdicts of not guilty.
With regards to the two matters that were nolle prosequi, one of these matters was for the offence of Murder where there was insufficient evidence to continue with the prosecution and the other matter was for the offence of Carnal Knowledge of a Girl under 15 years old in which the victim indicated by way of a statement that she did not wish to proceed with the matter.
In Essequibo, five matters were completed. Four of them were presented before Justice Nareshwar Harnanan and one was nolle prosequi in writing by the DPP.
Of these four matters, three were for the offence of Murder and one was for the offence of Carnal Knowledge of a Girl between 15 and 16 years old.
In two of the three Murder trials, the accused were acquitted. In the third Murder trial, a formal not guilty verdict was returned by the jury after the father of the deceased informed the Court that he did not wish to give evidence and did not wish to proceed with the trial.
In the matter of Carnal Knowledge of a Girl under 15 years, the accused was acquitted after the jury returned a unanimous verdict of not guilty.
During the Essequibo January 2014 Criminal Assizes, the DPP nolle prosequi one matter for the offence of Carnal Knowledge of a girl under 15 years because the virtual complainant indicated that she did not wish to proceed with the matter as she has migrated.
During the same time, the Berbice October 2013 Criminal Assizes continued with Madam Justice Diana Insanally completing three matters for the offence of Murder. One accused pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of Manslaughter and was sentenced to ten years imprisonment.
In the other two Murder trials, one accused was found to be unfit to stand trial and was sent to the National Psychiatric Hospital for treatment for six months after which, he is to be examined to determine whether he can stand trial. In the other matter, Justice lnsanally ordered that the accused be taken back to prison based on evidence taken from a medical doctor that he was unstable, non-cooperative and delusional. She directed the jury to return a formal verdict that the accused is insane and unfit to stand trial and ordered that the accused be treated for three months after which he should be reassessed to determine if he is fit to stand trial.
The Berbice February 2014 Criminal Assizes commenced on February 4th and is currently in progress. So far one matter for the offence of Murder has been presented and completed before Justice Insanally. The accused pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of Manslaughter and was sentenced to 11 years imprisonment. Another charge for the offence of murder is presently in progress.