Several days after attending a symposium at which Caricom Heads of Government declared the Region’s crime and violence situation a public health issue, Guyana’s Attorney General Anil Nandlall, SC, on Friday noted that the Government intends to take a scientific approach to crime-fighting, which will be complemented by robust, modern and suitable legislation.
These, he said, are required to assist law enforcement agencies in what he described as a “mortal combat”.
“…crime and violence have been identified as an existential threat to the Caribbean and its people. It is recognised that crime is evolving, and criminals are taking advantage of sophisticated weapons and the use of science and technology,” Nandlall highlighted while addressing the Guyana Bar Association’s Law Week Symposium held under the theme “New Frontiers in Law, Preparing for the Future”, last Friday at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC).
Guyana, he noted, is no different from the rest of the Caribbean and new laws have to be enacted here. However, at the same time, the Attorney General emphasised the need to use modern and more scientific approaches in the administration of criminal justice.
While noting that there must be forensic capabilities to do so, he said that the Guyana Forensic Science Laboratory (GFSL) must begin to play its conceptual role. To this end, he revealed that the Government is currently in the process of furnishing the GFSL with both the equipment and the forensic skills required but these skills will be imported as they are not available in Guyana.
Nandlall said, “I have already held discussions with the University of Guyana, and the forensic scientists whom we are importing to staff the [GFSL] will also be engaged by the University of Guyana to lecture in the disciplines in which they are academically and practically qualified.”
“Those who manage our legal institutions must necessarily be given the technological, financial, and administrative capabilities to do so. In this regard, we have to continue to invest heavily in acquiring all the modern equipment and apparatus available which will not only allow for the intrinsic management of litigation and case files within the justice system but will also integrate it with important adjunct organisations such as the Guyana Police Force, the Guyana Prison Service, the Social Services and Protection Agency, the Director of Public Prosecutions, and other agencies upon whom the justice system depends for functional support,” he continued, noting that these investments will aggregate to the strengthening of the justice machinery.
According to the Senior Counsel, the agencies that support the judicial system in the machinery of justice must also be suitably equipped to render that support. “A new physical edifice to headquarter the Guyana Police Force, the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Guyana Prison Service, and, of course, the Supreme Court are all requisite and in the making.”
“I have requested to be introduced to the Government’s online scholarship programme, GOAL, a plethora of disciplines in the forensic sciences, paralegal training, criminology, sociology, and psychology and I am pleased to report that many of our Police officers and those in the relevant public sector agencies are taking advantage of these new opportunities.”
Technology and criminal justice system
While addressing the symposium’s theme, Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) Judge Winston Anderson admitted that in criminal matters, the regional tribunal has faced a problem with how to treat with oral confessions which have not been audio or video recorded.
“A primary advantage of electronically recorded confessions is that it enables fact finders to make accurate assessments of the voluntariness of the confession,” added the CCJ Judge.
In some Caribbean jurisdictions such as St Kitts and Nevis, and St Vincent and the Grenadines, electronic recording of confessions is mandated by legislation.
In Sealy v the Queen (2016), he said the CCJ learned that Section 72 of Barbados’s Evidence Act, as amended, had introduced mandatory electronic recording of Police interviews but that, that section had not been brought into force. Bemoaning the lack of compliance with this section, the Judge said he wrote the following in a concurring judgement with which the court agreed:
“Science and technology have given society the most accurate and the most reliable means of discovering facts in or about our world. The judicial function is obliged to make use of these means whenever reasonably practicable so as to ensure that findings of fact in the judicial process accord as closely as possible with reality. Where scientific and technological methods are reasonably available but not used, constitutional questions could arise concerning the integrity of the system of justice.”
According to Justice Anderson, the practical implication of his sentiments was put to the test the next year in Edwards and Hanes v the Queen. In that case, he explained that the two appellants were convicted of murder and sentenced to the mandatory death penalty.
The only evidence against them was their alleged oral confessions but they contested them.
In the court’s judgement, Justice Anderson said he held, “the quality of the evidence was not sufficient to send the men to the gallows” while pointing out that the judgement linked the constitutional right to a fair trial with technological advances.
“It was time to replace the Policeman’s notebook with electronic recording devices”.
The Guyana Police Force has been electronically recording interviews with accused person(s) to boost the integrity of the law enforcement agency’s investigations since allegations of persons being beaten or induced by investigators have become more frequent in recent times.
