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As part of the sentence reduction program instituted by the Government of Jamaica killers of all stripes are being turned back onto the streets in alarming numbers.
One would think that with the tiny Island near the top of the list of countries with the dubious distinction of being called the world’s murder capitals Jamaica would be taking decided steps to ensure that criminals and in particular murderers are locked away and kept locked away.
Not so, the Government is actively giving away at zero cost to murderers, the ability to simply plead guilty to the murder they are charged with and receive a whopping 50% reduction in their sentences.
Naturally, some criminals who double as defense Lawyers have already found ways to further manipulate this atrocious system through the use of what is called social inquiries.
So naturally, everyone who ever commits a murder has a psychological problem. On that social inquiry report, murderers can pin their get out of jail hopes, and they do.
COP SPEAK OUT
Just recently head of the St Ann Police Superintendent Wayne Cameron spoke about judges releasing criminals back onto the streets as soon as his officers arrest them under the guise that they are entitled to bail.
He pointed to the fact that for the most part most of the criminals who are arrested for burglary and housebreaking in his area of command are indeed out on bail after having being arrested for the very same crime.
I would like to inform Superintendent that it’s not just home invasions and break-ins, the vast majority of the murders being committed across the entire Island are being committed by people out on bail having committed .…. you guessed it, murders.
Phillip Brown who killed his pregnant ex-girlfriend wrapped her body in a tarpaulin and was about to dump her in a gully before he was scared off was given a slap on the wrist. Fifteen years with the possibility of release after 10 years.
“Welcome to Jamaica where lives are good for nothing, kill at will, everything Irie mon”.
Meanwhile, 10 of the 14 people who had pleaded guilty in October during sentence reduction day were also sentenced yesterday. Among them, the laborer who admitted to killing a woman in December 2014 and hiding her body under his bed, after inviting her to his home for sex, was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment with psychiatric evaluation, treatment, and counseling.
Kino Gilzene of New Haven in St Andrew had pleaded guilty to manslaughter and not murder, as a psychiatric evaluation in October under the sentence reduction initiative showed that he suffers from schizophrenia. The deceased, Sudeen Jackson, a 22-year-old resident of Braeton Portmore, St Catherine was killed after she went to Gilzene’s home, allegedly for a sexual encounter in exchange for $3,000.
Following the sexual encounter, she asked to leave but Gilzene got angry and stabbed her in her chest and neck before using a stone to bash in her face. Gilzene then hid the woman’s body under his bed and cleaned up the scene. When his sister Alicia came home, he told her a story about being held up by three men who raped and killed Jackson. The sibling buried Jackson’s body in a shallow grave the following morning but informed their mother of the incident, and she summoned the police. Both were arrested. His sister Alicia Gilzene was charged with misprision of a felony. Meanwhile, medical assistant Lorna Williamson, who pleaded guilty to snatching a day-old baby from the University Hospital of the West Indies in St Andrew last December, escaped a prison sentence. Williamson, 47, was sentenced to three years’ probation with psychiatric counseling.
In handing down the sentence, Justice Martin Gayle said the 47-year-old woman needs treatment. The woman’s attorney had earlier requested a non-custodial sentence. Williamson was charged with child stealing last year after the baby was found in her possession in Rollington Town on the same day the newborn disappeared. The baby girl was taken from a cot that was adjacent to her mother’s bed on Ward 11 at the hospital. Sentencing for the man who admitted to killing the Moncrieffe’s Patio Shop owner earlier this year was postponed. Omar Graham, otherwise called “Brown Man” of Alexander Road in Kingston, pleaded guilty to the murder of 76-year-old Barbara Moncrieffe and the injuring of her husband and two others. His sentencing was postponed until January 30, 2018.
When the matter was called up, the court was told that the social inquiry report was not ready. The elderly woman died after receiving several blows to her body from a piece of iron, which was also used to inflict injuries on the other victims. Graham pleaded guilty in October as part of the sentence reduction initiative, which provides the platform for individuals to enter a guilty plea and benefit from up to a 50 percent reduction on their sentence, according to the provisions of the Criminal Justice Administration Amendment Act 2015.
This is an unmitigated travesty and an affront to the dignity of crime victims and their families all for political purposes.
The idea that a double murderer can get 10 years is a clarion call to all murderers and would be murderers to kill because first of all they will not be killed in return, in fact, worse case all they can expect is a slap on the wrist.
This is just one more of the bright criminal supporting ideas of Delroy Chuck which will continue to make Jamaica the murder capital of the world under the guise of cleaning up court dockets.
It is now time for mandatory minimum sentences to be applied legislatively to ensure that this cavalcade of murder is stopped.
One way to do that is to remove from the hands of the Islands Judges the decision to sentence suspects who commit capital murder.
We simply have to be resolute about stopping the bleeding figuratively and literally.
The job of doing so cannot simply be left up to the overworked, underpaid, unappreciated, poorly trained police.
This requires all hands on deck.
At the moment Government is busy reorganizing the deck chairs on the sinking Titanic for better optics while the majority of the deckhands are busy drilling more holes into the hull of the sinking vessel.