Dear Editor,

I write this letter in absolute disbelief and outrage at a recent court sentencing that has left many Jamaicans stunned and disillusioned. A man, found guilty of using a firearm to rape a woman and orchestrating the intimidation of witnesses — so severely that they had to be placed in the Witness Protection Programme — has been handed a mere 15-year sentence.

This is not justice. This is a mockery of our legal system.

Let us break this down for clarity. Rape, under the threat and use of a firearm, is not just a violent sexual assault, it is a calculated act of terror and is classified as a capital crime. Possession and use of an illegal firearm is a serious offence that, on its own, attracts a sentence of 15 years or more under our laws. Intimidation of a Crown witness is a major offence and, especially of this magnitude, is a direct attack on the integrity of our justice system. It is criminal, and it undermines the rule of law and public confidence in the courts.

Each of these acts — rape, gun crime, and witness tampering — should stand on its own merit in sentencing. And yet, instead of consecutive sentences, we are seeing a watered-down approach in which the punishment seems to merge into a single, lenient term.

In other jurisdictions, such as the United States, we’ve seen courts hand down multiple consecutive sentences totalling over 90 years or more for crimes of a similar or lesser nature. In some states such brutality would result in life without parole, or even the death penalty.

Jamaica cannot claim to be serious about fighting crime and protecting women while allowing monsters like this to see daylight in just over a decade. This sentence sends a devastating message to victims, survivors, and the public: Your trauma, your fear, and your pain are negotiable.

We must ask: Are we truly committed to the protection of our citizens? Are we prepared to ensure that justice is not only done, but seen to be done? Or have we allowed technicalities and leniency to become the loopholes through which criminals slip?

I call on the director of public prosecutions, the minister of justice, and our parliamentarians to review this case and the wider sentencing guidelines. If the law allows for such light punishment in the face of such heinous crimes, then the law must change. And if the law already allows for stronger penalties, then we must ask why they were not applied.

The blind can see that the police are up to the task and are committed to a safer Jamaica. Let us call on all other branches of the criminal justice system to come to the table and play their part in a decisive and clear way.

Jamaica deserves a justice system that protects the innocent and punishes the guilty with the full weight of the law.

Enough is enough!

David Norman

Kingston 6