NASSAU, BAHAMAS — National Security Minister Wayne Munroe said judges at times could be more proactive in how they adjudicate cases in order to reduce the backlog clogging the system.
His statement came after Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis said the system is on the brink of collapse because of the backlog.
His comment also came as officials express alarm at the amount of people being killed while on bail.
Munroe told Eyewitness News last week that 30 of the first 65 murders of the year were people on bail for homicide.
“Judges have an obligation to do what they swore an oath to do,” he told reporters yesterday before a Cabinet meeting.
“An example of how the judiciary works is there was recently reported that a gentleman was remanded for his own protection,” the minister said.
“Having read the story, not knowing the facts but getting them directly from the story and the judgment, that is an example of if you prove to the court a fact, the court will act on it.
“The courts are currently recovering from the shut down of everything.
“I acted as a judge for the Supreme Court judge and the criminal division for three months.
“Jurors generally aren’t the issue. The issue generally is the preparedness of the prosecution to proceed sometimes over indulgence of defense counsel, which I didn’t do when I was on the bench.
“And just marshaling things so they go along.
“We have a lot of rules that have been put in place that can make trials more efficient.
“When I was in practice, a case that took four months to try, I tried as defense counsel, then seven days.
“And so, if you permit people to waste time, a case that could be disposed of in five to seven days will take three to four months.
“And so, there are a lot of dynamics in it.
“Judges sometimes say they don’t want to stop a defense counsel because everyone is going to say my lawyer didn’t get to present my case.
“But at some point we have to be more proactive.”
Munroe said allowing Queen’s Counsel to step in and adjudicate cases in certain instances could also help reduce the backlog.
He said: “I was on the chief justice — when Dame Joan Sawyer was chief justice — delayed reduction task force and it was before 2000, I believe, that we produced a report.
“I’ve asked them to look for it because a lot of the recommendations there can go quite a way to addressing the backlog.
“So for instance, there was a suggestion judges get five weeks vacation.
“If there are ten judges in the criminal division, that’s 50 weeks of vacation for the judges in a year.
“That’s a year of trial time, right? Well, when they’re out of their chambers on vacation, nobody sits in that court.
“So, you lose about one year trial time to vacation, whereas you could seek to do what they do in England and have these people who want to be Queen’s Counsel sit and show that they are leaders of the bar by acting in criminal matters for the time that the judges are on vacation.
“And you would immediately get 50 weeks of trial time.
“And so, I’m seeking to get that report so that we can have a look at it, see what is still relevant, and to see what we can look at executing.”
