Plea bargaining bill hurdles Senate, but concerns remain
November 20, 2005
AGREEING that desperate times called for desperate measures, the Senate on Friday approved legislation enabling plea bargaining and plea agreements, which the states hope to use to target the bosses of organised crime.
However the bill's passage, which came after a marathon debate, remained contentious, even though Opposition members eventually supported its passage.
The Plea Bargaining Bill - officially called the Criminal Justice (Plea Negotiations and Agreements Act) - comes against he background of the growing crime wave which has so far claimed over 1,450 lives this year and difficulties encountered by the security forces and the legal system to charge and convict criminal overlords.
It was passed with two amendments.
The bill provides a structured framework for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), or anyone so authorised by the DPP, and the accused person and his or her attorney, to negotiate and enter into a guilty plea in exchange for the dropping of charges, or plea to a lesser offence.
Safeguards are built in to ensure that the plea arrived at is voluntary and that the accused is granted a right to representation by an attorney-at-law in the process of arriving at a plea agreement.
"Undoubtedly, there is full recognition by all among us, and increasingly by the vast majority of Jamaicans, that the battle against crime and its attendant social ills have to be fought on all fronts with a determined resolve and unswerving commitment," said justice minister and attorney general, Senator AJ Nicholson, who piloted the legislation.
However, opposition member Dorothy Lightbourne was less enamoured and warned against certain perceived dangers in the legislation.
"I would prefer if we proceed as it is at present ... that we proceed on the basis of evidence. This exchange of promises is dangerous. I do not like it," said Lighbourne, a practising attorney-at-law.
She also cited the temptation and opportunity presented by the legislation for an accused person to introduce evidence against an accomplice for an unrelated offence, in order to get a lesser sentence....
Author: Dwight Bellanfante
Source: Jamaica Observer
