Ralph Gonsalves
NASSAU, The Bahamas--A regional leader asked whether Bahamian judges “live on Mars” as he questioned how courts could grant bail to people accused of murder.
St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, who took part in a round-table discussion with other Caribbean Community CARICOM leaders, including Prime Minster Philip Davis, said there needs to be a discussion about the judiciary when attempting to tackle the wave of violence seen across the Caribbean.
“There is, in aspects of our judiciary, a creeping lack of awareness as to some of the problems which we face,” he said on Monday.
“How can you give somebody who was charged with murder bail? Let’s be serious. How can you do that?
“I saw [it – Ed.] in the numbers from The Bahamas. Where those judges live, on Mars?”
The discussion was part of CARICOM’s Regional Symposium to Address Crime and Violence as a Public Health Issue, which was held in Trinidad and Tobago.
Commissioner of Police Clayton Fernander gave a presentation on Bahamian crime statistics earlier in the day.
Fernander noted that of the 128 murders committed in 2022, 34 of the victims were on bail. He said that 35 suspects who were on bail committed murders in 2022.
In January, Fernander said that most of the individuals charged with murder last year are already on bail.
Speaking generally about judges in the region, Gonsalves said, “Too many of our judges and our magistrates are too soft. Sometimes you get the impression that some magistrates, depending on who is the lawyer, their people seem to get a better treatment, their clients. Everybody talks about this, you know, but they talk about it behind closed doors. You don’t hear it from a prime minister. Well, let us begin to talk about these things, too. All of these matters touch and concern how we are going to address this question.”
It was Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley who first raised the issue during the discussion on Monday.
“When I practised law, nobody got bail for murder,” Mottley said. “People did not get bail for murder. Now when I look at the stats, not just out of The Bahamas but in Barbados and all through the region, the people who are causing the greatest problems are charged with two, three and four murders. Something is fundamentally wrong.”
Mottley said Caribbean countries must ask how they intend to meet this challenge that is “undermining the rule of law in our countries.”
“We are going to have to find ways of cooperating from the level of the police to the level of the courts, but in particular, forensics,” she said.
In The Bahamas, the issue of bail has remained controversial. Suspects have a constitutional right to be tried within a reasonable period.
However, successive administrations have lamented that the judicial system has been plagued by a chronic backlog of cases, preventing many suspects from getting early trial dates. Many end up on bail. Police say this contributes significantly to high crime rates.
In March, a man who police said was on bail for six murders was killed in Fox Hill. Another man was also killed during the shooting and relatives believe he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
While Davis did not opine on the topic of bail in The Bahamas during the round-table discussion, he previously called on judges to “step up” regarding hearing murder cases.
“The courts have to pay more attention to persons who are going to be out on bail,” he said last June.
“The courts have to take control, I think, of their trials, so that people could have trials. I mean the backlog of cases is just astronomical and it’s almost nearing the brink of collapse.
“So, the courts have to step up and they need to hear these cases.” ~ The Nassau Guardian ~
