The Tribune

By LAMECH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

ljohnson@tribunemedia.net

TEN criminal Supreme Courts are expected to run simultaneously at the beginning of the New Year, the Attorney General said.

Confirming previous remarks by Prime Minister Perry Christie this summer that the government will look to initiate measures to increase the number of criminal trials being heard at any one time, Allyson Maynard-Gibson said this will happen as soon as “January next year.”

“You’ve heard the Prime Minister state that we will be conducting ten courts at the same time” she said during a press conference following the death sentence handed down to Kofhe Goodman for the September 2011 murder of Marco Archer.

“We expect that the result of that will be that, routinely, serious matters will be brought onto trial within the constitutionally mandated reasonable period of time.”

“And we expect that it will be 12 months. We hope that it will be 12 months but for sure it will be no longer than 18 months.”

The AG said the aim is not just to reduce the backlog of cases to be heard, but also to send a message to would-be criminals as part of the effort to reduce crime itself.

Vinette Graham-Allen, Director of Public Prosecutions, said the Swift Justice intitative “is bearing fruit.”

“And we intend with the honourable AG’s support, and directives and guidance, to improve on what we have started. “We cannot say that we are at the maximum level that we wish to be but we’re working towards that,” she said.

The prosecutor emphasised the importance of the prosecution being involved in matters from the moment they are reported to the police and contended that once this is the case, “you will see the result that one is hoping for.”

She concluded that if the cases are well prepared and prosecuted, the jury will speak and “the accused person will have one of two choices, you either plead guilty or you are found guilty.”

“That’s where we want to be in this country” the DPP said.