Bill That Gives The People Right Of Appeal Passed Without PNP Support

The pas­sage of leg­is­la­tion that gives the pros­e­cu­tion the right to appeal in lim­it­ed cir­cum­stances must be seen as a pos­i­tive step, albeit belated.
This leg­is­la­tion is gross­ly over­due in its pas­sage, par­tic­u­lar­ly when one con­sid­ers that all across the Caribbean, pros­e­cu­tors have the right by law to appeal on behalf of the peo­ple when judges make mis­takes in judg­ment. Having not yet seen the bill, I am con­strained about what I say. Still, if the past is pro­logue, we can expect that this bill will not go near­ly far enough in address­ing the ills in the sys­tem, par­tic­u­lar­ly as it per­tains to the sen­tenc­ing actions of the nation’s judges.
In fact, Delroy Chuck, the Islands jus­tice min­is­ter and no friend of crime vic­tims, argued that the leg­is­la­tion had been mod­i­fied over the years to become “one of the most lim­it­ed rights of appeal” across the Commonwealth.
If Delroy Chuck says it is watered down to noth­ing, I will take his word for it, know­ing full well that watered-down leg­is­la­tion that does noth­ing to rem­e­dy the nation’s crime epi­dem­ic is what Delroy Chuck likes and supports.

The Opposition People’s National Party mem­bers in the upper house (the sen­ate), have not sup­port­ed the bill. Peter Bunting, a for­mer min­is­ter of nation­al secu­ri­ty under the pre­vi­ous PNP admin­is­tra­tion, and leader of the oppo­si­tion busi­ness; who said ‘the solu­tion to the coun­try’s crime prob­lem was divine inter­ven­tion’ opposed the bill argu­ing there was no evi­dence to sug­gest that “it is our judges who are the root cause for these low rates of con­vic­tion.” In fact, he cit­ed the low con­vic­tion rates of crim­i­nals in courts like the Supreme Court as a major hin­drance to address­ing Jamaica’s ongo­ing crime problem.
These are the rea­sons that I have called for con­sti­tu­tion­al reform.
“It is high time that we reform our sys­tem that allows for old washed-up losers like Peter Bunting, reject­ed by the vot­ers to be [appoint­ed] against the will of the peo­ple to make deci­sions after they have been reject­ed at the polls.
Whose idea is this of we the peo­ple government?
It would be fool-hardy to lay blame for low con­vic­tion rates at the feet of judges only, it is the entire sys­tem, police, pros­e­cu­tors, judges, and defense attor­neys. But the lib­er­al Marxist judges that populateJamaica’s tri­al courts are a large part of the problem.
They cer­tain­ly do not need Peter Bunting to run pro­tec­tion for them, but their world views make Peter Bunting and the PNP the per­fect defend­ers of their actions since they are not allowed to speak out in public.

Director Of Public Prosecutions Paula Llewelyn in hail­ing the pas­sage of the bill shot back, “Let me make it quite clear, the right of appeal for the pros­e­cu­tion doesn’t have any­thing to do with what is going to hap­pen with the pros­e­cu­tion down below, It has to do with an issue where there is judi­cial error.”
In the inter­est of crime vic­tims, I hope that “judi­cial error” also applies to the egre­gious assaults of the Marxist elit­ist judges on sen­tenc­ing. Allowing their friend’s friends out with slaps on the wrist for vio­lent offenses.
Yes, the Island’s judges are a large part of what is hap­pen­ing in our coun­try. Unelected bureau­crats, like Peter Bunting, get to impose their will on the nation with dis­as­trous consequences.
The People’s National Party was nev­er a polit­i­cal par­ty that cared about crime, in fact, the con­tin­ued esca­la­tion of vio­lent crime has always been cen­tral to its strat­e­gy of gain­ing and hold­ing on to pow­er. It comes as no sur­prise that they would oppose a bill that will give the vic­tims, (the Jamaican peo­ple) who are not crim­i­nals, a chance at justice.

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Mike Beckles is a for­mer Police Detective, busi­ness­man, free­lance writer, black achiev­er hon­oree, and cre­ator of the blog mike​beck​les​.com.