Patrick Powell Will Get A Fair Trial, His Right To A Fair Trial Cannot Be Guaranteed At The Expense Of The Aggrieved Family’s Right To Free Speech In Their Pursuit Of Justice…

In 2011 I began on a journey it was the creation of my Blogs chatt​-​a​-box​.com that journey began because a young man 17-year-old Kingston College student Khajeel Mais was brutally murdered and Authorities in Jamaica took no action.
I decided to speak up even though I had never met young mister Mais nor his family and still haven’t. The circumstances of his death however and the way the case was being handled or better yet not handled revealed a gaping chasm in the way justice is handled on the Island. As a former Police Officer I have spoken out since then , consistently broadening my arguments about the shortcomings and unjust practices within the system.

Young Khajeel Mais was trav­el­ling in a taxi-cab which hit anoth­er vehi­cle , the dri­ver of the vehi­cle opened fire on the Taxi-cab killing Khajeel Mais . The dri­ver of the cab was able to escape and alert authorities.
It was­n’t just the killing which inflamed pas­sions and angered decent well think­ing peo­ple , it was the way the Jamaican police stead­fast­ly refused to reveal the name of the shoot­er who was days lat­er revealed to be Patrick Powell a well con­nect­ed upper Saint Andrew man in his ear­ly fifties.
Only after much out­cry was he arrested.
One of the charges which was even­tu­al­ly laid against Powell was his refusal to turn over the mur­der weapon to the Police.
It was alleged that Powell was a reg­is­tered firearm hold­er, I am assum­ing that his refusal to turn over the kill-weapon made it ille­gal as far as the fil­ing charges were concerned.
Despite this repug­nant death, the Jamaican Criminal Courts sys­tem has still not man­aged to bring this case to a conclusion.

Since the fam­i­ly of Khajeel Mais lost their son, I too have lost my own son albeit under dis-sim­i­lar circumstances,(RIP KKB). The pain I feel can­not be put into words .
At the time of the untime­ly death of Khajeel Mais I was pained to the point it spurred me into action . The action I took was to use my expe­ri­ence as a police offi­cer and turn it into social activism.
In the years which ensued I spoke out against police cor­rup­tion, the lack of sup­port for mod­ern sophis­ti­cat­ed polic­ing and the sub­se­quent yet pre­dictable crim­i­nal­i­ty which emanat­ed as a result.
In the expose I have sought to do over the years I have spo­ken out in no cer­tain terms against the court system,which has exist­ed in a bub­ble free from appro­pri­ate scruti­ny which ought to accom­pa­ny gov­ern­ment agen­cies par­tic­u­lar­ly in a place like Jamaica.

The crim­i­nal courts has unde­served­ly man­aged to stay above the fray while oth­er arms of Government has been held up to ridicule for their lack of pro­fes­sion­al­ism and competence.
The Jamaican peo­ple have always had a sense of def­er­ence toward the bench .
Whether it is deserved is for each and every Jamaican to decide.
One of the things I have spo­ken out against has been that def­er­ence . Not because I believe we should not be def­er­en­tial to our courts and it’s noble man­date to be rea­son­able and just arbiter of facts, but because I fun­da­men­tal­ly believe the Jamaican courts have been any­thing but that.

Despite the pas­sage of almost five years ‚the Mais Family has still not been able to receive jus­tice from the Jamaican courts.
As a result of the tar­di­ness, inac­tion, and lack of jus­tice the fam­i­ly has been forced to turn to Social Media to air their con­cern at the lack of justice.
Shockingly defense lawyers are now com­plain­ing to the tri­al judge that their client mis­ter Powell will not be able to get a fair tri­al in the courts because of the out­rage on social media.

AIN’T THAT A BITCH…

The Judge hear­ing the case Lloyd Hibbert has since ordered the fam­i­ly to desist from post­ing mate­r­i­al on social media per­tain­ing to the trial.
Ain’t that a BITCH.
If the court had done it’s job in the first place instead of set­ting the case back sev­er­al times argu­ing it did­n’t have court­room space this would not have happened.
A clear cut mur­der case still unre­solved after five years is the fault of the court and not the family’s.
What gall and temerity ?
This Judge has some nerve , there is not a sin­gle per­son on the Island of Jamaica who has not heard about this case. If they have they have an opin­ion one way or the other.
The idea that this judge would acqui­esce to the argu­ments of Defense coun­sel on the flim­sy grounds that their client can­not receive a fair tri­al is stunning.

What author­i­ty does Lloyd Hibbert have to make an order pre­vent­ing the fam­i­ly of Khajeel Mais from post­ing on social media about their pain and anger at this lack of jus­tice , unless of course they are mate­r­i­al wit­ness­es in the case?
Does he have con­sti­tu­tion­al author­i­ty to con­trol free speech ?
That is the issue. I vig­or­ous­ly encour­age the fam­i­ly to resist this attempt to take away their God giv­en right to speak out about the ram­pant injus­tice against their fam­i­ly under the flim­sy guise being used by this judge.

AN UNEQUIVOCAL ASSAULT ON FREE SPEECH UNDER THE GUISE OF PROTECTING A POTENTIAL JURY POOL

Deborah Martin said that the defence was alarmed at the family’s behav­iour and com­plained that the family’s “exten­sive tirade that is going on in social media sug­gests that Powell is guilty”. Hibbert instruct­ed that no fur­ther mate­ri­als be post­ed on social media about the case while warn­ing that any­thing done to unfair­ly influ­ence a tri­bunal is tan­ta­mount to con­tempt of court. Hibbert said he was dis­turbed by some of the com­ments which were high­ly crit­i­cal of the jus­tice sys­tem.
This shock­ing load of bile is what I have been speak­ing out about for years since I left law-enforcement.
It is a poor­ly dis­guised attempt to get the fam­i­ly to shut up in light of the fam­i­ly’s out­rage at the inac­tion of the courts to do it’s job.
This order by this judge is a shock­ing dis­play of ille­gal and immoral alliance between bench and bar in an unright­eous alliance against justice .

Every Jamaican not taint­ed by cor­rup­tion and crime must con­demn this for what it is. A clear and unequiv­o­cal attempt to use the courts to bul­ly vic­tims of crime while col­lud­ing to free alleged murderers.
This fam­i­ly should not be cowed by Lloyd Hibbert or Patrick Powell’s defense team.
Every per­son charged with a crime is enti­tled to a fair and just tri­al. Nowhere are those rights more real­ized than Jamaica. Prosecutors have to present air­tight cas­es to get a con­vic­tion in even the most clear cut cases.
This is not because of vig­i­lance on the part of the judi­cia­ry , far from it. It is exact­ly because of the lib­er­al­ism and close rela­tion­ships between Bench and the Defense bar.

Every case pros­e­cut­ed in the courts has to be proven beyond a rea­son­able doubt. In Jamaica it has to be proven beyond that.
Patrick Powell will get a fair tri­al, his right to a fair tri­al can­not be guar­an­teed at the expense of the aggriev­ed fam­i­ly’s right to free speech in their pur­suit of justice.
This judge is way out of line.
This is an ille­gal order which can­not stand a con­sti­tu­tion­al smell test. The court can­not be allowed to con­tin­ue run­ning pass-pro­tec­tion for crim­i­nals with­out consequence.