Samuels wants tougher sanctions for cops who plant evidence

One of the country's top criminal-defence attorneys has suggested that lawmakers enact special sanctions for law-enforcement personnel proven to have "planted" evidence on an accused person to secure a conviction.

For Bert Samuels, the maximum penalty for such action should be twice the sentence prescribed for the criminal charge against the accused person.

As a further deterrent, Samuels wants law-enforcement personnel found to have planted evidence to secure a conviction to share the financial burden where their actions result in a successful lawsuit against the State.

"In any successful civil suit arising from an acquittal where evidence was planted, the officer should be compelled to pay one-half of the damages awarded," he suggested in a letter to The Gleaner.

The suggestions were among a raft of measures proposed by Samuels to protect the rights of accused persons and guarantee that they receive a fair trial.

However, Paula Llewellyn, the nation's chief prosecutor, has taken issue with the suggestions, arguing that Samuels is "unwittingly seeking to persuade the legislature to concretise a lopsided system, which would be unfair to the prosecution and victims" in criminal trials.

"The public interest cannot be served by having a lopsided justice system," said Llewellyn, the director of public prosecutions.

However, Samuels noted that for decades, legislators have addressed the needs of the prosecutorial arm of the State.

"It is time to ensure that our parliamentarians preserve the rights of its citizens who are, according to our Constitution, entitled to a fair trial before an independent and impartial tribunal," he said.

12 jurors for serious cases

The well-known criminal-defence attorney suggests that lawmakers restore the number of jurors in murder and other serious cases to 12 and enact "serious penalties" for police personnel who breach the Bail Act by holding an accused person for more than 24 hours without appearing before a justice of the peace.

"Currently, this provision [in the Bail Act] is observed more so in its breach rather than in compliance. If we are serious about not repeating the loss of the lives of the likes of Agana Barrett or Mario Deane, both tradesmen who died as a consequence of baseless detentions, then we must do better," he said.

Barrett and two other men died from lack of oxygen after they were crammed inside a tiny cell at the Constant Spring police lock-up in 1992 while Deane was beaten to death inside the Barnett Street police lock-up in 2014 after he was detained for possession of a ganja spliff or cigarette.