DELAY OF CASES

Feb 16, 2017 Editorial, Features / Columnists

There appears to be major problems within the judicial system in terms of the timely dispensation of justice to the average citizen in the country. The delay in trials will continue to do so unless a more proactive approach is taken by the government to make the judiciary more efficient.
Instead, there is a propensity to make excuses, real or imaginary for the lengthy delays. It is said that justice delayed is justice denied.
The introduction of night court has helped to ease the delay; this has cleared the backlog that had been growing for some time. Recently, the number of cases reaching the court increased; it could be an insurmountable task of having timely trials anytime soon. In order to reduce that huge backlog of cases, prosecutors should strive to minimize the extent of postponements. All too often defence lawyers and prosecutors complain about not being ready for trial.
Court officials have indicated that a lack of resources was one reason for delays in the delivery of justice. They have noted that there were some accused who were on remand for over five years and had offered to plead guilty in return for time served. Many have had their cases nolle prosequi by the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The process, especially as it relates to a criminal investigation and trial is simple. If a murder is committed, the accused is arrested and charged for murder/manslaughter by police. That individual is remanded after his/her first court appearance. The investigator then has the responsibility of preparing a case file that will include civilian and police statements, post mortem report, photo album and ballistics report in the event of a firearm being used. These reports fall within the category of a police report. There might also be the necessity for a report from the government laboratory on other trace evidence found at a crime scene.
The point is that in most cases the work to be done should be completed in speedy fashion. However, some preparations will take longer depending on the natue of the samples or the speed with which magistrates prepare their depositions.
But generally, most of these matters are investigated and concluded locally in reasonable time. Therefore, the fact that the accused who are on remand have to wait years to get a trial shows that something is drastically wrong with the judiciary. This is not only an institutional shame but also a national embarrassment to the government and all in society.
The problem is systemic throughout the judicial system. In some cases, police files do not reach the courts in a timely manner. On other occasions, some do not reach the courts at all. It seems that this is a case of either bureaucratic police delays or incompetence. It could also be that over a period of time the police department has become so chaotic that the supervision of those files to be presented to the courts has been compromised.
The problem starts with the police and then at the court where judges and magistrates often grant too many adjournments. Such delay is what is wrong with the judiciary and the magistracy,
It is time that a cap be placed on adjournments initiated by defense counsel or by the prosecution. There is no human, technical or extraterrestrial reason for why it should take five or six years for a case to be heard in Guyana with only 748,000 people.

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DELAY OF CASES

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