Despite the COVID-19 pandemic affecting the judicial system, there has been no significant increase in crime, and the island’s criminal courts have been able to put a dent in the number of cases on its calendar.
So said Justice Carlisle Greaves as he addressed new jurors in the No. 3 Supreme Court yesterday.
“We have been fortunate in this country that despite all of this, we have not had an escalation in crime,” he said.
“These courts have been very focused on gun crime, gun-related cases and the evidence does not seem to suggest that there has been any increase during this testing time in activity by those who use the gun.”
However, he noted COVID-19 had substantially frustrated the working of the judicial system in the last two years.
“It seems every week if it’s not one thing it’s another. When it’s not the prison breaking down with COVID, it’s a lawyer on one side or the other breaking down with it or exposed to it in a manner that makes it impossible to function. If it’s not that, it’s the accused man who is affected.” (HLE)
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