Lawyer petitions aid for accused persons
Published:Tuesday | November 23, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter
Defence lawyer Valerie Neita-Robertson has made a special plea for someone to intervene on behalf of accused persons who cannot have their cases disposed of expeditiously.
Neita-Robertson made the call yesterday in the Home Circuit Court when a murder case involving five men, which has been on the court list for the last six years, had to be put off.
One of the men is in custody.
The court was told that the reason for the adjournment was that one of the accused was hospitalised and there were insufficient jurors to try the case.
A court official said 890 summonses were sent out, but only 43 jurors were in attendance.
Neita-Robertson, who is representing one of the accused, said defence lawyers and their clients were "frustrated and fed up" with the justice system because of the long delays in having cases tried.
Nonchalant attitude
She argued that the case of the five accused was being dealt with in a nonchalant way. She said it was frustrating to be told there were not enough jurors and pointed out that was the situation on many occasions.
"We just have to find a way to get the work done," Neita-Robertson stressed, as she called on those in authority to do something about the situation.
Supreme Court judge Horace Marsh said he heard various reasons given for why the jurors were not served. The judge said that on occasion, the court was told that some of the addresses were open lots.
Neita-Robertson said she made checks and was told that there was only one process server and one motor car assigned to serve the summonses. She suggested that the summonses be divided and given to all the police stations in the Corporate Area so that jurors could be served to attend court.
She said defence lawyers had to put in a lot of work and time to prepare cases for trial.
The case is a legal-aid assignment and Neita-Robertson noted that if it were not tried for the next 10 years, she would still be paid the same $40,000 fee. So far, the case has had 13 trial dates and was put on the trial list as a priority three times.
The case was taken off the trial list and is now set for mention on December 10 to determine when the accused, who is hospitalised, will be able to attend court.
The accused are Kevin Edmond, George Bailey, Kemar Whyte, Delroy Arnold and Shawn Sinclair, who are charged with the murder of Erica Marshall, who was shot in her house in Riverton City, St Andrew, in April 2004.