There Is Need For A Tougher Bail Act…

As was expect­ed, mem­bers of the pri­vate Bar have come out swing­ing against Prime Minister Andrew Holness’s announce­ment of the Government’s inten­tion to have the Bail Act amended.

Mr Holness made the dis­clo­sure in his bud­get pre­sen­ta­tion on Tuesday, but did not elab­o­rate, stat­ing only that the inten­tion was for an amend­ment to the act “such that per­sons charged with mur­der will be inel­i­gi­ble for bail under cer­tain circumstances”.

Without details of the Government’s pro­pos­al, we are unable to give our view one way or the oth­er. However, read­ers of this col­umn will know that we have often argued the point that bail is too eas­i­ly grant­ed to some accused indi­vid­u­als and that there needs to be a review of the law.

We can­not for­get the bru­tal mur­der of Special Constable Troy Foster in Malvern, St Elizabeth, in January 2013 by gun­men who engaged a police patrol in the town.

After the shoot­ing, it emerged that one of the gun­men — Tyrone Edmond, who was also shot dead in that encounter — was out on bail, hav­ing been charged with the mur­der of 60-year-old pen­sion­er, Mr Cecil Bennett in Top Hill, St Elizabeth, in 2010.

We also remem­ber very well that in August 2012 one of the three sus­pects held for the cold-blood­ed mur­der of 26-year-old used car deal­er Mr Michael Rochester was on bail. The sus­pect, the police report­ed, was fac­ing charges of mur­der and shoot­ing with intent.

There have been myr­i­ad cas­es in which offend­ers on bail have com­mit­ted seri­ous crimes, includ­ing mur­der. Indeed, one infa­mous gang leader, who was arrest­ed and charged for a triple mur­der, was released on bail only to be arrest­ed again and charged with a fourth mur­der three months lat­er. But, sur­pris­ing­ly, he was grant­ed bail again.

After all that, who can blame the police and indeed pub­lic pros­e­cu­tors for feel­ing frus­trat­ed? Indeed, the police have often lament­ed that the ease with which some accused indi­vid­u­als are grant­ed bail is hob­bling their crime-fight­ing efforts.

We recall some years ago Assistant Commissioner of Police Wray Palmer express­ing a desire on behalf of the Police Officers’ Association that the courts review the admin­is­tra­tion of bail.

“We need to con­sid­er the free­dom of a vio­lent crim­i­nal ver­sus the secu­ri­ty of the nation,” Mr Palmer said at the time.

It is a view that was shared by for­mer Prime Minister PJ Patterson who, in 2005, called for a review of the pol­i­cy gov­ern­ing bail.

“There are too many cas­es of too may per­sons who have been bailed intim­i­dat­ing wit­ness­es or com­mit­ting oth­er offences,” Mr Patterson told senior jour­nal­ists at a Jamaica House news briefing.

This prob­lem, we note, is not unique to Jamaica for, in October 2012, British news­pa­pers pub­lished Government data show­ing that every 10 days a mur­der is com­mit­ted in Great Britain by offend­ers on bail.

According to those sta­tis­tics, at least 37 crim­i­nals were con­vict­ed of mur­der while on bail for anoth­er offence in the year 2011 — an aver­age of three every month.

In addi­tion, the data showed that in 2011, a total of 65,627 crim­i­nals were con­vict­ed for a new offence they had com­mit­ted while on bail.

While the fig­ures here in Jamaica are not as fright­en­ing, we can­not ignore the real­i­ty to which they speak.

Jamaica needs to get to the point where the prin­ci­ples of jus­tice and the rights of indi­vid­u­als are observed, while the safe­ty of the com­mu­ni­ty is protected.
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