EDITOR, The Tribune.
Permit me to follow up on my letter published in the Guardian on Thursday, April 24, on the matter of bail and the responsibility that Bahamian Judges and Magistrates bear for the high level of violent crime we are now experiencing.
In fact, I can advise in advance that letters from me will likely be forthcoming on a weekly basis as I seek to sensitise your readers to this urgent issue by referencing specific instances where the courts have endangered the lives and safety of Bahamians through their granting of bail to violent criminals.
On the same day it published my letter, the Guardian reported that a Jason Marshall had been convicted for the murder of a man in Nassau that took place back in 2005.
Subsequent to the murder, Mr Marshall seems to have left the Bahamas for the United States (an act that was reasonably interpreted by the prosecution as evidence of guilt). In 2010, he was arrested in the United States for another alleged violent offence and deported back here, where he was promptly bailed by a local court. So a man suspected of and now proved to have committed a murder in The Bahamas, who initially fled to another country following the murder, only to be deported back here by that country, was, until Wednesday, walking free among you and I, courtesy of a Bahamian Judge or Magistrate. He was one of some 400, we are told.
That is the frightening reality of our courts’ dereliction of their primary duty to society.
Next week, I am sure I will have much more to say as the identities of the culprits and victims of the latest slew of murders are released.
I can grimly predict some of these will have been people once in custody, subsequently loosed upon the Bahamian public by a Bahamian court, only to kill or be killed.
It is time to stop looking at everything but the 800 pound gorilla in the room for the answers to our violent crime epidemic.
Neither capital punishment nor any of the longer term social development measures will change the level of violent crime in the short term.
But it can clearly be drastically countered if not eliminated if we manage to either constrain Judicial discretion over bail, or revisit the constitution and remove the mechanism altogether.
ANDREW ALLEN
Nassau,
April 25, 2014.
Comments
banker 10 years ago
Long term economic development is the answer to the crime problem. An employed nation doesn't have a crime problem like ours.
TheMadHatter 10 years ago
Mr. Allen, I regret that you have not been informed. The jails are full of marijuana users and dealers. There is no room for murderers. Speak to your pastor. Ask him if Jesus turned water into wine or apple cider?
The jails are full of petty "criminals". Real criminals therefore have to be set free - as you see is happening. The case you quote is only one of MANY.
TheMadHatter
cawilliams 9 years, 10 months ago
You need to get your facts straight . This whole article is incorrect and misleading. There is absolutely no evidence against Mr. Marshall . He was NOT deported from the US he was granted voluntary departure , he knew he was innocent and volunteered to go back and face it. He did not violently attack the man in the US the man in the US tried to attack him and pulled a gun on him and Mr. Marshall was not charged for this at all, the other man however sat in jail because he was at fault. And your stating that because a crime happened in the Bahamas and he came to this country shortly after that makes him guilty of a crime. Then to that sir I say we as Americans should always ASSUME Bahamians commited a crime to get to our country because your entire country is riddled with nothing but crime and violence with a shade of US generated tourism. Or should we in the US bring to light and post all the crimes and crime rates of the Bahamas for our people to see which believe me would completely advert a suburban citizen from the US from ever wanting to visit there. Mr Marshall has a family in the United States, a boy that calls him dad. This is the type of justice your country offers, an innocent man volunteers to come stand for a crime he didnt commit and your Queens prison starves him almost to death basically. Just so your aware when he went to prison there he was about 175lbs and when he was granted bail came out of your prison with his ribs showing. This type of abuse and inhumanity should be brought to the light. Why dont you do an article on how prisoners look before and after they enter you system instead of incorrectly reporting because this article is garbage and you should be sued for not stating facts and just putting any rubbish you read into it, as a journalist your job is to research which clearly you haven't. That so called monster as you deam him to be has nothing but love and support in the US, there are numerous people whose hearts are broken because of him being there and not here.
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