Fear delays Justice: Threats keep witnesses away from court

Barbara Gayle • Staff Reporter

ONE OF the problems now facing the justice system is the difficulty in locating potential witnesses, as many of them have reportedly been threatened.

The difficulty in locating witnesses was the subject of a discussion last week Friday at a case-management conference in the Home Circuit Court.

After being told that the witnesses in a particular case could not be located, Miss Justice Kay Beckford commented that "there is a whole heap of cases like that."

Justice Beckford indicated that steps should be taken to throw out those cases. "Something must be done about the situation. If you can't locate the witnesses why don't you deal with the matter in a particular way," she advised the prosecutor.

Just two weeks ago, defence lawyer Valerie Neita-Robertson made an impassioned plea for someone to intervene on behalf of accused persons who cannot have their cases disposed of expeditiously. She made the call 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 because of insufficient jurors.

Asked to respond to Justice Beckford's remarks, Director of Public Prosecutions Paula Llewellyn, QC, says her office appreciates the judge's concern. She disclosed that a lot of witness intimidation was taking place and that to some extent, was preventing witnesses from attending court.

"If we are too hasty in throwing out matters where victims have been intimidated and not attend court, then we may run the risk of having alleged perpetrators get comfort from the fact that the cases cannot be tried because the witnesses are not coming through fear. We are trying to dispose of a lot of matters but we do not want to be too hasty and perpetrate an injustice. We have to balance the right of the accused along with the victims and their families," Llewellyn said.

Witnesses intimidated

Llewellyn says there is currently a lot of witness intimidation taking place. She says this hampers the prosecution's efforts to ensure witness availability.

"We try to balance the constitutional right of the accused to have a speedy disposal of his or her case with the right of the victim to also have their day in court.

"As prosecutors we are operating in a challenging environment where a lot of people are afraid to testify and there are instances where witnesses are killed," Llewellyn stressed.

Llewellyn said her office could not implement a policy that once a witness was put to fear, the Crown, without more, throws out the case. "We would be handing a weapon to perpetrators to just simply have their friends put potential witnesses in fear because they know the system has a new rule that once the witnesses do not turn up in court, the case is automatically thrown out," she said. According to Llewellyn, the prosecution has to seek to strike a balance where it recognises and respects everyone involved in the case and bear in mind that the accused has to be tried within a reasonable time. "We have to strike a balance too in the challenging environment, the high crime rate and intimidation of witnesses," she added.

"We are constantly trying to refine and review our system of assessment and we admit that there is room for improvement," she said.