AG eyes 2024 changes to boost justice system

By Ryan Gilkes

Attorney General Dale Marshall is anticipating a pivotal year in 2024, focusing on fostering a more responsive judiciary and bolstering the criminal justice system. 

Marshall outlined ambitious plans, including efforts to reduce the backlog of murder and firearm trials through the introduction of new criminal procedure rules that would give judges greater powers, as he spoke to Barbados TODAY on the sidelines of a Christmas luncheon for seniors in his St Joseph constituency.

He said: “I hope that the Office of the Attorney General will be able to continue to deal with the issues that we have to deal with. Going into 2024, I really would like to see a more responsive judiciary in terms of the delivery of decisions and so on.”

The Attorney General expressed optimism about achieving these objectives, citing the addition of judges and forthcoming legislation to allow for judge-alone trials.

“We have set a target to try to reduce the number of murder trials, firearm trials from the high level we’re at,” he said. “We’ve introduced additional judges. We are about to introduce new criminal procedure rules. So that’s on my wish list for next year, [and] a new piece of legislation dealing with judge-alone trials.”

The government’s chief legal advisor praised the dedication of law enforcement agencies in maintaining stability in Barbados in trying times.

He said: “The Office of the Attorney General has had some good successes [and] I am very pleased with the hard work of the law enforcement agencies in Barbados. They’ve done a lot to help to keep things together. Barbados has continued to weather the difficult storms.”

Turning to the state of his rural constituency, Marshall vowed to relentlessly pursue government agencies responsible for infrastructure repairs in the parish.

“My constituents are beginning to feel the angst about the declining infrastructure,” he said. “It has been causing them a great deal of inconvenience and annoyance and I’ve committed to getting those things done. But . . . whatever is done in my constituency has to take into account the overall effort of the Ministry of Public Works and so on,” he said.

Focusing on deteriorating road infrastructure, particularly citing challenges posed by heavy rains, the St Joseph MP pointed out specific areas like Joy Road, Horse Hill, Melvin’s Hill, Lane Bridge, Fruitful Hill, and Coconut Grove, which he said had worsened significantly, causing inconvenience and frustration among constituents.

“We now have a situation where at Joy Road, [at] the bottom part of Horse Hill, one small part has been reduced to a single lane because of a broken culvert,” he said. “That has to be sorted out, but that effectively means closing the road if only for three or four days. So we have to prepare for that.”

But as he looked back at 2023, Marshall also boasted of improved fortunes for the people of St Joseph and the nation as a whole from a “very hard-working government”. 

“They’re seeing the benefit of a country that has begun to turn the corner in terms of our prosperity, our employment rate, job opportunities, education opportunities for people who are interested in artificial intelligence, computing and so on,” he said. 

“The future is bright. We just need to stay the course and I’m satisfied with the progress we’ve made so far and I look forward to building on that progress for 2024.” (RG)