Major changes to indictments as well as to the Firearms Act will see new-look trials from this Assizes.
No longer must all 12 jurors agree on a verdict in a murder trial and gunmen can now be convicted for having working components of a firearm even if that piece cannot discharge a bullet.
Justice Carlisle Greaves has lauded the changes, saying “they bring about a new disposition to our judicial system”.
He was speaking as he welcomed jurors to the new Session of the Continuous Sittings in Supreme Court No. 3 recently.
The judge explained that as a result of amendments to the law, there will be new types of juries and indictments.
He noted that previously, an individual could only be tried on an indictment for murder even if that murder arose from a kidnapping and rape, burglary or where someone opens fire in public.
“The only offence you could be tried for at any time would be the murder. All the other offences could never be tried,” Justice Greaves said.
“One of the reasons was that the number of jurors necessary for murder was 12 and the other offences was nine, and murder convictions or acquittals require unanimous verdicts. There was also the principle that you shouldn’t put a person in double jeopardy. That was one of the constraints in the past,” he said.
“In the past, it was unjust that an individual who committed all these offences at the same time would escape being convicted for the rest or acquitted for the rest. So the record would never reflect that he raped somebody in the case of that murder,” he told the new jurors.
The judge said the law had now been changed so that the indictments would not only have the murder charge, but could also have charges like possession of a firearm to commit murder, possession of a firearm, conduct endangering life, wounding, aggravated burglary, rape and kidnapping, or any charge related to the murder.
In addition, he said all the matters on the indictment would be tried by a panel of 12 jurors.
As a result of the amendment, he said, it was now possible to have a majority jury verdict in a murder case.
“These things I expect to save time. These things I expect to prevent the corruption of jurors. In other regimes it would only take one juror to hold up the whole ship.”
Justice Greaves noted the Firearms Act had been amended to allow for offenders to be charged and convicted for having component parts of a firearm.
“I want those who are walking around our communities feeling they are untouchable, those who are importing these parts, those who have one piece here and one piece there, it is now an offence to have any working part. You are as guilty as if you have the whole thing, whether or not it is capable of shooting someone or not,” he warned.
He explained component parts could include the trigger, the slide, the stock, the frame or even the firing pin.
“These are the efforts to help bring under control the scourge of the firearm nemesis that we have in this country.”
