Attorney General Dale Marshall is in favor of introducing plea bargains to Barbados’ justice system to help reduce the current backlog of criminal cases.“I’ve had some discussions with the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and in fact, I had discussions as recently as today with the Acting DPP and he has indicated that having plea bargaining legislation will be a great boon to the system, and it is something that I’m certainly prepared to (take) to Cabinet,” Marshall said.Plea bargaining is a feature in the court systems of the United States and several European countries. It allows defendants in criminal matters to plead guilty to benefit from shorter sentences or to have their charges dismissed.The AG’s comments came on the heels of comments from Judge Jacob Wit of the Caribbean Court of Justice, who at last month’s regional Crime and Violence Symposium in Trinidad and Tobago, made a case for the implementation of the practice.Calling for a robust over
The soon-to-be established Criminal Justice Reform Committee is expected to make Barbados’ overburdened judicial system more efficient, says Attorney General Dale Marshall.Speaking to the media on Monday at the Hilton Barbados as deliberations in the second Criminal Justice Symposium continued into the evening, Marshall said one of the major deliverables is the establishment of the committee which will monitor the implementation of decisions coming out of this symposium and the first one held earlier in April.“In addition to the committee being set up to oversee the entire process of criminal justice reform, we expect to be able to come away with some decisions on important legislative items that we want to enact,” said the AG who expects to co-chair the committee with Chief Justice Sir Patterson Cheltenham.“The kind of things that are currently being considered by the committee would be such things as judge-alone trials, amendments to the Evidence Act, and amendments to the Ju
By Jenique Belgrave
Prime Minister Mia Mottley has served notice on magistrates, judges and lawyers that they must operate differently to reduce the backlog of criminal cases in the courts.
So serious is she about fixing the current deficiencies that she told stakeholders gathered for a symposium on Wednesday that if they could not find solutions during their talks it would be
It is time for an independent body to be established to investigate matters involving the police, says attorney-at-law Faith Greaves.
“I do have a concern in terms of the police investigating themselves. There should be a separate body or a separate division within the system to investigate matters of this kind. However, we would all have to put our heads together
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