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Hon. Keith Bell on Juries and Parliamentary Elections (Amendment) Bill‏
Apr 25, 2015 - 2:35:19 PM

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Speaking Notes By

Senator The Honourable Keith R. Bell

Minister Of State In The Ministry Of National Security

On:-

The Juries (Amendment) Bill 2015 and

The Parliamentary Elections (Amendment) Bill 2015

BEFORE THE SENATE

23rd April, 2015

Remarks by Senator the Hon. Keith R. Bell

Minister of State in the Ministry of National Security

The Commonwealth of The Bahamas

On

The Juries (Amendment) Bill 2015 and The Parliamentary Elections (Amendment) Bill 2015

Before The Honourable Senate,

 24th April 2015

Madam President, I rise today to lend my support to the Juries (Amendment) Bill, 2015 and the Parliamentary Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2015.

And I do so Madam President with a very grateful heart to my God, my wife, my family, my fellow Bahamian people and indeed our Prime Minister as we now set out to deliver our commitments enunciated in our Charter for Governance.

I publically thank our Defence Force Officers who unwaveringly perform their duties under highly traumatic circumstances.

Madam President, I would wish to thank the hard working Correctional Officers and their support staff for their unrelenting work to keep hardened criminals in safe custody.

Madam President, I also give my full support to our police officers and wider law enforcement that are at our ‘front line’ in ensuring our protection and safety. Upon us coming to office we promised that we will be unrelenting in our fight against crime whilst improving our social programmes to address some of its sources.

Madam President, it is important that at every opportunity we are able to thank our law enforcement officers, we show our appreciation. This must extend to our law abiding citizens as well.

For instance, I am not sure if the general public is aware, that the Police alone receive in excess of 30,000 calls per month for help through their Police Control Room. Many rescues, successes or other matters that are considered “ordinary” are not ‘newsworthy’:

- Infant and toddler left alone are taken from home

- Woman prevented from committing suicide

- Sister takes gun from feuding relatives & call police

- Role of Law Enforcement & Shock Treatment

Madam President, I also once again highlight the unacceptable trend occurring on social media. Irresponsible individuals are continuing to post gruesome photos and videos of homicide and fatality victims on social media as they occur. It is unethical, immoral and simply wrong – we must as Legislators address this trend with urgency. Close family members and even relatives abroad are traumatised by this unacceptable behaviour. I plead to those of you who do it to STOP immediately as it causes irreparable damage. I encourage all ‘right-thinking’ Bahamians to discourage this behaviour.

Upon coming into office in 2012, this Progressive Liberal Party Government made a commitment to the Bahamian people that we would be unwavering in our efforts to improve the efficiency and capacity of our Criminal Justice System.

These efforts, ably led by the our Attorney General, the Hon. Allyson Maynard-Gibson and her State Minister, the Hon. Damien Gomez have made significant advances in delivering that which we committed to provide, that is, a more efficient system of Justice.

To do this, additional resources (both human and capital) have been committed. We have additional judges, court facilities and made improvements to the laws which govern the justice system.

The Country has more courts which are operational today than at any other time in its history and under any previous administration.That Madam President is a fact and one which this government and indeed all Bahamians should be proud.

In spite of these efforts, we know we have further promises to keep and indeed miles to go before we sleep.

Madam President, just last year we presented to this Honourable Chamber and passed a number of significant amendments to the Juries Act and Parliamentary Elections Act.

Those amendments sought to correct a number of inadequacies in the law as it then was by:

· extending the scope of qualified voters by allowing all persons who are not exempt, disqualified or excused who are registered voters to serve as jurors inclusive of qualified persons resident in the Family Islands

· Providing for funding for the travel and reasonable living expenses of Family Island Jurors called to serve in New Providence or Grand Bahama

· Allowing for the Registrar to cause the list to be published in the Official Gazette; published in at least two daily issues of a Bahamian Newspaper, posted on the Government’s official website, Posted in the Magistrates and Supreme Court buiding, made available at every Post Office Building and forwarded to the Office of each Family Island Administor

· Reducing the period of Jury service from three months to two months save a juror will continue to serve until the completion of cases which they have sarted

· Reducing the number of prospective jurors who can be challenged wihout cause to a maximum of ten in a trial for murder or treason; or seven, in every other trial.

The amendments of 2014 have worked to improve the overall administration and efficiency of the system. However, it has become clear that the additional amendments are needed to strengthen the overall system by allowing for additional mechanisms to select and contact jurors.This will be done by amending the Parliamentary Registration Act to require voters to provide national insurance numbers, telephone contacts, email addresses and facsimile numbers.

To safeguard against unauthorised use, the Bill specifically provides that the additional contact information gathered will not become part of the voters registrar and will only be used for the purposes of the Juries Act which is also being amended.

The amendments to the Juries Act will:

· Expand the information which the Parliamentary Commissioner will provide to the Registrar inclusive of telephone numbers, email addresses, facsimile numbers and National Insurance Numbers of persons who appear on the Electoral roll

· Allow for jurors to be selected every two months

· Allow for the electronic process to select a jury panel

Madam President, these amendments will greatly improve our ability to select, notify and empanel juries as we will have more practical means of contacting jurors in addition to the community announcements and advertisements in the news papers. Once the information is given to the Parliamentary Registrar department, I am confident that it would become far less likely that court cases would be delayed because of a lack of jurors.

That Madam President is the crux of it - a simple attempt to allow for additional information to be gathered facilitating contacting persons selected for jury duty.

This however is another ‘push’ by this Government following similar attempts by other governments including members opposite to improve a system where anecdotal evidence suggests may have ran its course and requires far more significant reforms.

As members are aware, in our constitutional democracy, the Constitition provides in Article 20 subsection (2)g that:

“Every person who is charged with a criminal offence- shall, when charged on information in the Supreme Court, have the right to trial by jury;”

Every person, when charged with a criminal offence before the supreme court is entitled, as of right to a jury trial.

Rape, Armed Robbery, Robbery Attempted Murder, and Murder are some of the more common offences which our laws provide must be tried before the Supreme Court before a jury.

Madam President, when the framers of our Constition drafted these provisions, we were dealing with a Country which had less than 15 Murders per year - less than 15. The number of other cases which would have required a jury trial would also be similarly low. Today, we face a criminal justice system which has a caseload which has increased by over 1000 % and I believe that the present jury system has ran its course and we must begin a national conversation on whether this system is still fit for its purpose.

As for me, and I speak to the extent that I can for myself (personally) based on my own personal beliefs, professional knowledge and convictions. I do not believe that every accused person appearing before the Supreme Court should be entitled as a constititional right to a jury trial.

Fortunately, I am not alone on this stance as it is supported by the Constititional Commission Chaired by Sean McQueeney, QC which reccomended that:

“the constitutional right to trial by jury when charged with an indictable offence be dis-entrenched, and trial without jury should be available under circumstances prescribed by law.”

In explaining their reasons behind the reccomendation the Commission expressed:

“Several presenters, including former Chief Justice Sir Burton Hall, made a case for the dis-entrenchment of the right to trial by jury in certain cases, which he described as “…inefficient, prodigal of resources, and ultimately, unfair.” This view was supported by the Hon. Attorney-General in her presentation to the Commission. The Commission notes, however, that there was not unanimous support for the abolition of jury trials from within the senior ranks of the judiciary”.

The Commission’s Report went on to say that:

“Our Constitution, almost uniquely among the Constitutions of the CommonwealthCaribbean, guarantees the right to trial by jury ‘when charged on information in the Supreme Court’ (Article 20 (2) (g)).59 That alone should signal that it might be necessary to look seriously at the utility of retaining such a provision. But importantly it was never suggested that removing the constitutional right to trial by jury would introduce any unfairness in the system. To the contrary, the argument was that jury trial had the tendency to be arbitrary and unfair, in addition to the administrative evils associated with it. The Commission agrees that the criminal justice system would be better served if there were not an automatic right to a trial by jury when charged on information in the Supreme Court. In our view, the Constitution should authorize Parliament to prescribe by ordinary legislation the exceptional circumstances in which criminal matters may be tried by a Judge alone”.

Now I am fully aware that there are many who may have differing views on this issue. There are some who would support a complete abolition whilst the opposite extreme may wish to extend the right to all criminal trials. Both extremes would feel passionate about their beliefs and will argue their points.

Our realities however produce a unique set of facts which must be considered in looking at the viability of the present system, namely:

1) The Bahamas has a relatively small population of inter-connected persons;

2) Jurors may live in the same communities or have social or other connections to accused persons or their families;

3) Jurors(because of our size and interconnectedness) may be vulnerable to tampering/interference;

4) Studies abroad suggest that jurors and the courts by extension are increasingly challenged by jurors resorting to researching/googling accused persons or being exposed online information on victims or the accused;

5) Mistrials can occur when there are omissions by jurors as to connections to the accused/victim; and

6) The difficulties of lay persons from different academic abilities in interpreting and using advanced or very technical scientific or medical evidence.

This is not to necessarily say that there are not instances when jury trials can be used. However, I believe that such instances should be kept to an absolute minimum (Eg. Jimmy Ambrose Case).

Such a move would of course require further deliberation and no changes can be made without the consent of ¾ of the Legislature and the support of the majority of the Electorate in a Referendum.

The process would not occur overnight and should it happen, it will be limited to future cases so that it would not be retrospective in its application. I strongly believe that trying cases of burglary, armed robbery, rape, incest, attempted murder, manslaughter and major fraud before a single judge (or panel of Judges) would greatly improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our judicial system.Such moves however are for another time and will require another debate.

As for now and today, the Bills before this Chamber make significant improvements to our existing system. They further support the work being undertaken to reform our Criminal Justice System and I am satisfied that they will assist in making the administration of the jury system easier and more efficient.

I support the Bills and commend them to this Honourable Chamber.

As always, may our God continue to bless this Great Commonwealth and its people.


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