Georgetown : Prejudice on the part of jurors has been listed as one of the many reasons that have been highlighted to indicate that there is a dire need for the revamping of the local jury system. This is according to State Counsel, Konyo Sandiford. According to Sandiford who operates out of the Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecution, while there is an urgent need to address the system, “we are working from a very small pool and there is a possibility that there are a lot of people available for jury work, who want to do jury work, but are not being selected because we are so slow in our revising of the (jury) list.”
According to her “we can cite a number of problems with the current system but it is not just a matter of pointing blame, it is something that needs to be fixed,” if the ideal outcome of some trials are to be realized. Sandiford’s remarks were forthcoming as she presented a number of cases which fell through in the High Court between 2010 and this year due to a number of reasons which included lengthy delays, changes in statements, lack or death of witnesses, flawed identification parades, but was certainly not limited to jury prejudice.
According to Sandiford, there are currently a number of variables that could determine the outcome of cases in the High Court and “when persons are not cognizant of the various variables and that trials fall through for one reason or another, people then tend to feel that there is no justice in Guyana and that you can commit all sorts of crimes and get off…but they don’t understand why many of these cases fall through as they do today.”
Speaking in response to the revelations presented by Attorney-at-law Sandiford, High Court Judge, Justice Roxanne George acknowledged the notion that “we definitely have to look at reforming our jury service and revamping it.”
Noting the comments made about the issue of bias by jurors, Justice George pointed out that “we have no means of picking that up. We do not follow the American system where we question jurors…we follow the British system which is a Commonwealth style system more or less…we don’t question our jurors we just hope that 12 good persons will try the case fairly.” Additionally, Justice George pointed out that “we don’t have a system of alternates but we recognize that we do need a system of alternates,” in light of the fact that a case cannot proceed without the full quota of jurors.
“I have had cases where you are sitting waiting for a juror, this has happened to me both as a prosecutor and a judge, where a juror has gotten into trouble with the police and nobody knows. We are sitting in court waiting and the trial cannot go on and then very belatedly we find out that that juror is in custody.” In such a case the prosecution could start to wonder, “If we should keep that juror? Would it be wise because that juror might be bias against the police…and then you wonder about the fact that you have already gone through two and a half weeks into this trial. Should I shut it down and start over and that could be another problem, so it is not that easy sometimes,” Justice George pointed out.
Another issue that has been encountered, according to Justice George is that the private sector employers have exhibited a bit of ignorance, perhaps due to their lack of understanding on the importance of jury service. “Many of them do not like their staff to be jurors and would often send letters to us for them to be excused.” In the cases where staffers are allowed to undertake jury work, Justice George said that some employers require that they return to work each day. But according to her “being a juror is a very serious task, we don’t have a system whereby you take notes and so you have to be there concentrating for several hours…it all has to be retained in the head you have to remember what the witnesses said, how they said it and the context in which it was said among other things…After jury work which can last from 9 in the morning until around two in the afternoons that person is not fit to go to work…they have been concentrating all day.” Unwillingness on the part of some employers to give up a staff for an entire day has in some instances resulted in jurors receiving threats of termination from their job, Justice George said thus the need for greater awareness on the importance of jury work.
You must be logged in to post a comment.