IN A LETTER published on June 8, I suggested that for Prime Minister Freundel Stuart to say on June 4, that he had been “hit for six” when he heard that some prisoners on remand for murder had been granted bail entails that he must have been sleeping like Rip Van Winkle – this given his level of understanding of the law, including our Constitution, in theory and practice.
I insinuated that if he kept bowling full tosses of incredulity he might just lose the match.
Well, now it seems he has. On June 15, you reported the skirmishes in Justice Beckles’ court between the DPP and attorney Larry Smith in a case where a man had been held on remand for ten years on a charge of murder and who, at last released, is now suing the DPP and Attorney General.
What a shocking indictment of our criminal justice system. Why has this case not been settled? Justice demands it.
In any event, the Prime Minister must have been aware of the case, and so given that it’s rooted in excessive delay he must also have been aware of at least one of the reasons why bail’s been granted in similar cases. Faced with what seemed to be a walking corpse, Incredulity in St Thomas was wholly explicable – but not, as here, where you know very well that one week on you’re going to be called to account for the very thing you claim to be incredulous about. Is that what’s called “politics”?
– REV. CLIFFORD HALL
