Office of the DPP needs to be reviewed !

It is now clear to even Senator Morris that the Office of the DPP here in Jamaica is in serious need of URGENT review.

The DPP has failed on too many occasions to bring a matter to court and successfully complete a prosecution and gain conviction on the matter and I will note a few noticeable cases.

Buckley’s Shooting Case

1. A cop shoots and kills an innocent man on video and walks free in what should have been a case that should have been won hands down.

Why did this happen?

What went wrong?

What measures have been put in place to ensure this failure never happens again ?

Irwin Five Rape Case

1. Five women are brutally raped and cops arrest two men for this heinous crime. DNA samples collected and tested exonerate the men, but the DPP chooses to proceed with the case and the men are found not guilty.

Why did this happen?

What went wrong?

What measures will be now put in place to ensure what occured here NEVER happens again?

Vybz Kartel Murder Case #1

1. Vybz Kartel is accused of murder and is arrested and charged . The man sits in jail for close to two years and the case finally comes before the court and is over in a matter of days. The crown’s main witness cannot be located and the judge throws out the written statement from the “witness”.

Why did this happen ?

What went wrong ?

What measures will be now put in place to ensure what occurred above NEVER happens again?

The DPP will be quick to point fingers at the lazy cops and lazy they are, indicating the their case is as good as the investigative work of the cops and the evidence presented by the cops for the particular case in question.

I am then forced to ask ” What is the role of the prosecutor” ?

Now I am not a legal luminary, but I would have thought the role of the prosecutor would take on the following tenants.

1. Provide legal advice to the investigative arm of the justice system aka the police.
2. Provide cops with help in terms of the ( credible) evidence needed to successfully prosecute the case.
3. Review the evidence presented and determine it can stand up in a court of law.
4. Determine the nature of charge to be levied against the suspect.
5. Initiate prosecution proceedings .
6. Ensure the material evidence , witness etc are all available and protected as is required to ensure the case is not compromised.
7. Present information to the courts, all evidence collected along with witness that will ensure successful conviction.

I am sure there are many more arms and legs to all of this than what I mentioned above, but in my mind those are the crucial ones that comes readily to mind.

Its simple for me, if the evidence is weak, you cannot proceed and the cops should be told to go and do his job and when he has credible evidence he can return to the prosecutor.

The cops are not without blame, I am not saying that but let’s just look at this scenario for a brief second.

• It takes a teacher 3 yrs to be fully trained then another 2 – 3 years to gain experience to be considered to be a teacher.
• It takes a lawyer 7 yrs to complete the law degree, then another few years to gain experience working with other experienced lawyers.
• A surgeon takes 7 years of more to become a specialist, but needs many more years under his or her belt to become one who can work on this own for major cases.
• Its takes an engineer 3 -4 yrs to be trained and then a another few years before he can truly act the part.
• We train a cop for 6 months, give him a big gun and turn him loose on the society and suddenly he his the law and can arrest any one for just about anything and you have no talk because he is the law.

It cannot be that we expect many of these cops who did poor academically, spends only 6 months in training to suddenly understand the following:

1. Crime scene protection.
2. Evidence gathering and protection.
3. Investigating and interrogating technique to show up inconsistency in suspect statements.
4. The value of recording the interrogating process.
5. The value of being patient and waiting so as to collect irrefutable evidence under legal circumstances that can withstand the assault of our highly experienced criminal lawyers.
6. The value of working very closely with the legal arm of the justice system to ensure evidence is collected is what can be used to secure conviction.

I just want to make it absolutely clear that I am not saying our police are “under-educated” as I am well aware that many of our cops are trained lawyers and many have been trained overseas. The problem I am having is , our best and brightest cops have desk jobs and are at high levels in the police force and are doing administrative work and so the real investigative work is left up to those who have the least experience and who are in a hurry.

That my friends is the crooks of the problem.

So what are we going to do about it?

Not a damn thing and the DPP will continue to be a failure, which means more extrajudicial killings will take place.

Interestingly the one big case that the prosecution was able to successfully prosecute was rather shamefully done, the charges in my opinion was wrong and the accused was given a rather light sentence given the premeditated nature of the crime.

The lawyer of the accused was HAPPY with the outcome, thus telegraphing to the public that his client got away with “murder” , pun intended.

Bless