Judge says—‘My sentencing policy is less harsh than death penalty’

Jun 24, 2014 News

– says issue has been misunderstood
Known for the lengthy sentences he imposes on convicted killers, Supreme Court Judge Navindra Singh says that his

Justice Navindra Singh

sentences are within the confines of the law.
During the last session of the Demerara Criminal Assizes, Justice Singh sentenced two murderers to 78 years and 56 years’ imprisonment respectively, after the jury returned unanimous guilty verdicts.
Some people have been questioning his sentencing policy, describing it as “too harsh,” but Justice Singh believes that the issue has been misunderstood. He explained that the legal option which other Judges exercise is the death penalty. How could a term of years be more harsh than a death penalty?”
“I don’t understand why people complain about the jail sentence when before another judge, a person could be sentenced to the death sentence,” Singh said in reference to a ruling handed by Justice Franklyn Holder last year, in which three coast guard ranks found guilty of murder, were sentenced to face the gallows.
Justice Singh explained that he views the death penalty as not mandatory. As such, his rulings are handed down based on a number of factors.
“I have done up a list of aggravating and mitigating factors and based on the United States and British sentencing schemes I try to tailor the sentences as best as I could to suit the Guyana society…”
Justice Singh had said, earlier, that he believes that the purpose of the death penalty is that if the person is found guilty it means that the person is dangerous to society.
He said that if there is no execution, the person would be on death row which could lead to their sentence being commuted to life imprisonment. He explained that once the sentences are commuted, there is a great likelihood that the person could be released at some point in time which he believes, is contrary to the concept that the legislators wanted.
“I tailored it to suit our situation using the base figure which is the estimated life expectancy (span) in Guyana derived from World Health Organisation (WHO) and other world globally recognized institutions. The base figure I come up with is sixty years which is less than life expectancy in Guyana.”
Justice Singh said that sentences are discretionary as long as they do not exceed the maximum limit.
“For murder the maximum limit is death which may be at the discretion of other Judges. Those found guilty of the lesser count of manslaughter, are given a term of years. Persons can be sentenced to between 15 and 20 years.”
Asked whether there are options for those on trial, the Judge explained that prisoners have no choice as to which Judge does his trial.
“Once a person is arraigned and the jury is empanelled, if he disrupts or is disrespectful to the court there is an alternative. I can exclude him from the trial and continue the proceeding… I can’t stop the behaviour of a prisoner but if I feel that it is disrupting the proceedings I can continue the trial without him but I don’t think anyone would want that.
“I don’t think that anyone would want to be sitting in prison trying to figure out what is going on in their trial before the court today.”
Justice Singh further explained that while someone may be serving a long term sentence, there will be opportunities for parole.
“In prison terms a jail year is eight to nine months of a calendar year. Therefore if a person is sentenced to 56 years the sentence works out to two-thirds of the original sentence. At some point in time during that sentence if a prisoner is on good behaviour and satisfies the criteria for parole, he/she can apply for parole.”