Draft plea bargaining legislation ready

Supreme Court of Judicature (Amendment) Bill, 2023 which he introduced in the Lower House of Parliament on Tuesday. The recent Crime Prevention Symposium hosted by the Centre for Criminal Justice and Security (CCJS), in partnership with CariSECURE 2.0, featured extensive discussion of the proposed guidelines, and Marshall said other proposals discussed at the meeting have now been acted on. “We agreed, the entire body, that a plea bargain system would be useful to Barbados. That legislation has been drafted and has this week been sent out to all of the stakeholders for their comments. We had this seminar I believe in May, and in July I am telling you that we have completed the drafting of one pillar for the plea bargaining, and it has gone out for consultation. “Within the next week or so, I expect that the other initiative which deals with judge-alone trials, something that is novel but we feel important, that draft legislation will also be completed and sent out to stakeholders for discussion,” the Attorney General disclosed. Addressing the Supreme Court of Judicature (Amendment) Bill, 2023, Marshall said that in an effort to further reduce the backlog of cases, the Chief Justice will be given additional powers to guide the sentencing structure for criminal matters. “The methodology we propose to adopt in Barbados is one where the Chief Justice will prescribe sentencing guidelines. The mere use of the word guidelines would indicate that a judge, while he is expected to follow the methodology set out in a guideline, is free to go on either side of it. “The guidelines do not stipulate for an offence of robbery where the fine is supposed to be X you should give Y; it does not get into that detail. What it does is it says for a particular kind of offence, this is the way which a judge should approach the matter of sentencing,” he explained. Marshall said there would be a general guideline which will apply to all criminal matters, as well as specific guidelines issued in five general areas. “Causing death by dangerous driving will have its own guideline; drug offences which will run from the smallest to the largest; firearm offences [which] are perhaps the bane of our modern existence. The fourth area that will benefit from guidelines [are] offences from dishonesty – theft, robbery, burglary and aggravated burglary – and then the final specific area that will benefit from a guideline will be rape.” The AG stressed that though sentencing guidelines may seem like a new concept to some Barbadians, it is commonplace elsewhere. “Sentencing guidelines are seen as being an important part of a criminal justice system and are adopted almost across the entire common law system, adopted in England, adopted in Canada, all throughout the Commonwealth. Barbados is coming to this particular game a little late in the day but in this case, better late than never,” he said. (SB)]]>