A High Court judge expressed his frustration at the slow pace at which murders cases, especially those involving guns, are being brought to trial, as he declared that the blame for the delays cannot be placed on the courts.
The outspoken Justice Carlisle Greaves further suggested that there appeared to be “resistance” to his efforts to have firearm-related murder cases and other gun matters tried.
“I have held my peace for some time and I have tried hard . . . but I can’t hold it any longer . . . . I want the public to understand it is not the court’s fault. We want to work. Let the fault go wherever it belongs,” he said on Monday.
His comments came as he lamented that there was only one murder matter on a list of 20 cases on the first arraignment session of his No. 3 Supreme Court this year.
The judge, who previously served more than 20 years on the bench in Bermuda, issued a call for the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to bring the murder indictments before the court.
“I have set up a system so that with certainty every month the DPP office can bring before these courts all of their new indictments and have them arraigned. COVID or no COVID, it should work. So you explain to me how you have so many murder indictments . . . and bring 20 cases before me and you only have one as a murder? You explain that to me.
“How is it possible . . . [with] indictments sitting in the DPP’s office for murder, 90 per cent of which are firearm-related, that you can have an arraignment session in January with 20 cases and only one is murder, in front of an experienced judge? How is this possible [with] an experienced prosecutor,” Justice Greaves questioned.
“No matter how many times I tell the DPP to bring murder cases before the court, I can’t get through…. I have been begging and pleading and begging and pleading – bring the murder indictments to court. I can set a date, I have left my calendar relatively clear to accommodate this.”
Justice Greaves added that he had been “sacrificing” himself to make this happen, refusing to take vacation for three years “so that I remain available as long as these courts are open so I can do these cases, so I can make a difference in this country”.
“Let us find out if these people who are accused of murdering our people with firearms are guilty or not,” he insisted.
Noting that the situation was not unique to the No. 3 Supreme Court over which he presides, the judge added: “It is happening across all of the criminal courts. Are we serious or are we not? What are we trying to do . . . ? What message are we sending out there to these people . . . ?”
The judge complained that his docket was being clogged with other matters which would push the hearing dates for murder cases further down in the criminal assizes.
Justice Greaves said that after spending three years on the High Court bench, he had not yet tried a dozen murder cases.
Meanwhile, he said, “people are suing us left, right and centre for delay in their matters. We are getting stay orders left, right and centre.”
“I want to see [my calendar] plastered with murder cases…. “[I] can’t come to make friends, I have come to make a difference . . . . I have been doing this thing for over 30 years with a record [here] of cleaning it up and getting it to work, with a record overseas of cleaning it up and getting it to work and then coming back [here] and getting monkey resistance . . . .”
“If [we] don’t take it seriously we will find ourselves . . . [like] two neighbours down to the south and some in the north and some in the middle. Don’t fix it and see what is going to happen,” he cautioned.
fernellawedderburn@barbadostoday.bb
