JUSTICE Minister Delroy Chuck, who in insisting that all cases in the Supreme, gun and circuit courts should be disposed of within three years, is pinning hope on the employment by the constabulary of nearly two dozen lawyers who will work alongside investigators to ensure that case files can be completed with strong evidence to back the charges laid against accused persons.

“A major challenge for the criminal justice system is that far too many cases are delayed for extended periods due to the failure of investigators to complete the investigative process and secure the relevant evidence to substantiate the charges laid, thereby ensuring the successful prosecution of the accused,” Chuck told the audience attending the launch of the Pro-Jam III Project at the Courtleigh Hotel in St Andrew on Tuesday. The two-year project is intended to further strengthen Jamaica’s justice system with particular focus on the management processes and capabilities of the court.

According to the justice minister, “in several instances, though the material evidence to move the cases to the trial stage existed, the bottleneck occurred in relation to the delivery of forensic, ballistic and technological reports to complete the case files”.

“For cases to be tried, the files must be completed before the prosecution can proceed. I am aware that the Jamaica Constabulary has employed attorneys-at-law to work specifically alongside investigators to accelerate and garner the best evidence in support of the charges laid against accused persons. I understand that the JCF has 20 positions for these attorneys, 15 of which have been filled; it is expected that the additional five will be filled shortly. Accordingly, we expect the case files to be properly built out to provide strong and powerful evidence against the accused,” the justice minister stated.

In emphasising that “speedy trials are hallmarks of an efficient system and are consistent with our constitutional provision for criminal trials to be completed within a reasonable time”, the justice minister, in the meantime, pointed out that when the files are incomplete and the cases drag on, with multiple mention dates and trials dates, the grant of bail becomes more likely.

“It is extremely difficult for a judge not to consider and grant bail when through no fault of the accused, the case drags on for many months and, in some instances, years. It is absolutely important for investigators to have timelines and to get whatever support is needed to have their case files completed within weeks and certainly within a year,” Chuck noted.

He, in the meantime, contended that Jamaica would be well served if the plea bargaining process becomes a major part of the criminal justice system, further reducing time before the courts.

“If the evidence collected and corroborated is strong, and overwhelming to support the charge then it sends the right signal to the accused that a guilty verdict is inevitable and thus a guilty plea becomes a more favourable option. In these circumstances, plea bargaining becomes an attractive possibility,” Chuck told the audience.

Said the justice minister: “It seems to me that we have to find appropriate ways and means to encourage more guilty pleas through the plea bargaining facility, and difficult though it may be, to encourage Jamaicans to acknowledge and accept that plea bargaining is not the soft way out. I appreciate that most Jamaicans are of the view that a severe punishment must be meted out to every criminal for justice to be done or at least to be seen to be done; however, plea bargaining is not one sided and the sentence imposed after a successful plea bargaining agreement is sanctioned by the judge”.

According to Chuck, utilising plea bargaining would mean that once prosecutors have a complete file, rather than even waiting for a trial date, they could, during case management, make an offer for an appropriate sentence in exchange for a guilty plea.

“It is my considered view, that for us to really move criminal case swiftly, plea bargaining should be more fully utilised and should exceed more than 50 per cent of cases in the system. It is my fervent hope that within the next five years, more and more cases in the parish court, gun court and circuit courts will be completed via plea bargaining,” he said. He noted that in the American criminal justice system, where plea bargaining is fully utilised, more than 95 per cent of criminal cases are completed through the plea bargaining process, making it so that less than five per cent of cases actually go to trial.

Significant progress has occurred under Chief Justice Bryan Sykes’ adoption of differentiated case management (DCM) as a means of ensuring a structured approach to case-flow management. Data shows that DCM has significantly improved case clearance rates with a record rate of 124.58 per cent being achieved in the first three quarters in 2022, representing an 18 per cent increase from 2021. The positive trend continued in the final quarter of 2022 as there was an even more impressive case clearance rate of 143.05 per cent. The gun court’s clearance rate exceeded 100 per cent in 2021 and 2022, achieving a clearance rate of 110 per cent and 108 per cent, respectively; however, this number fell to 81 per cent in 2023. The vast majority of cases coming to the parish courts are disposed of within 12 months. With respect to the Supreme Court and circuit court, cases are averaging much longer than three years.