Judge propose sentence ease for guilty pleas to trim backlog

Judges are considering a proposal to offer a 50 per cent ‘discount’ to accused pleading guilty, in an effort to erase the current backlog in cases still facing the High Court.

The limited time offer, says Justice Carlisle Greaves, is still being discussed by his colleague judges.

Speaking in the No. 3 Supreme Court today, Justice Carlisle Greaves said it was an initiative he suggested and which would mean serious discussion taking place before a consensus was reached.

“I have raised with the other judges, we haven’t fully discussed it yet and we know we have to discuss it, but I raised with them two weeks ago the possibility of, for a limited period of time next year, offering a 50 per cent discount on guilty pleas.

“We haven’t worked out the logistics yet, whether it’s going to be certain matters or all matters, to encourage those who are guilty to plead guilty, especially with all of those old cases that we have and even some of the more recent ones as well for a limited period of time, all in the effort of bringing some semblance of justice to both victim and accused and to the community at large, while at the same time also getting rid of that backlog so that we can focus on doing what we have to do,”

Justice Greaves told several of the Crown’s prosecutors.

“That is something that you should think about and start to toy around with it to see if it might make sense…We have to start thinking modern or not this backlog is going to still choke us.”

He said while significant strides had been made in reducing the backlog of cases, the COVID-19 pandemic had undone those gains.

Greaves, who is well known for his no-nonsense stance and handing down lengthy sentences on capital murder charges and firearm-related offences, further suggested that it may be better to consider offering compensation to victims in less serious cases rather than incarcerating offenders.

He admitted that in some instances adopting a tough stance could prove detrimental to clearing the backlog.
He pointed out that the move to impose fines for firearm-related charges was working.

“We have a crisis in Barbados with this backlog and we might have done pretty well had not COVID come along. My assessment is the most serious of these backlog matters have to do with firearm matters particularly those related to the use of a firearm and in particular murders and that kind of stuff. My view is that those should be given priority.

“The other matters that we have, particularly those that tend to be personal like grievous bodily harm and wounding and some of these other matters, I think that in a lot of cases justice might be better done if we went down the compensation line, which we have been doing anyway, rather than the imprisonment line,” Justice Greaves pointed out.

“If everybody feels that they are going to get locked up for grievous bodily harm and wounding and those other kind of matters they will come in with a bundle of not guilty pleas in cases where they are obviously guilty as sin and delay the court further either in getting them to trial with no real satisfaction or benefit to the complainant who suffered the injuries.

I think we might find that a lot of these complainants are prepared to take some compensation and the accused are prepared to pay some not to go to prison.”

Justice Greaves said once the backlog was cleared judges could go back to adopting a tough stance on all matters.