Nassau, Bahamas - Attorney-General Allyson Maynard-Gibson: I wish to respond to a recent article published in the Tribune
on my speech to stakeholders of the judiciary at the opening of the
Legal Year on the second Wednesday
of January. More specifically, I wish to respond to
statements attributed to the National Chairman of the Free National
Movement, Mr. Michael Pintard. A link to the Tribune article is provided
for ease of reference.
While
the Office of the Attorney-General has been working diligently to move
the Bahamian justice system into the future, Mr. Pintard remains in the
past.
As
I said at the Opening of the Legal Year, 2015 was the most productive
year on record for the Office of the Attorney-General. In 2012 when I
was appointed to this office, conviction rates were at 31% but through
the hard work of prosecutors we have doubled that conviction rate to
63%. Cases are being more thoroughly investigated and more effectively
tried. Through increased efficiency, the Office of the Attorney-General
disposed of 110 more Supreme Court cases in 2015 than it did in 2012. We
are strengthening our partnerships with the Judiciary and the Defense
Bar and this has resulted, for the first time, a real reduction of the
decades old criminal case backlog.
This
unprecedented progress was accomplished through the focused lens of the
Swift Justice initiative. Yes, there is more work to be done, and I
want to reiterate that this work has nothing to do with politics.
Therefore, we invite Mr. Pintard, as well as all of our fellow
Bahamians, to join us in that work.
