THE COUNTRY’S CHIEF prosecutor believes that a switch from jury trials to judge-only trials could help ease the backlog of cases in the courts.
While admitting that jury trials “had worked very well for us” over the years, Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) Charles Leacock has suggested that Barbados follow in the footsteps of several other Commonwealth countries and move towards judge-only trials.
Leacock lamented that there were currently over 800 cases in the High Court awaiting trial, while 10 000 cases were filed annually in the Lower Court.
“With a continued increase in cases and a large volume of cases to be tried and limited and finite judicial timelines available, we should seriously consider whether trial for all indictable matters, especially drug matters, money laundering matters and murders, can continue to be tried by a jury,” the DPP said during the closing ceremony of a Regional Security System’s Prosecution of Drug Offences Course yesterday.
Please read the full story in today’s Saturday Sun, or in the eNATION edition.