Dear Editor,
I am not a legal person, but a common man who, like the jurors in a criminal matter, must decide on guilt or innocence based on the evidence provided in a particular case.
The recent murder case which saw the termination (nolle prosequi) of legal proceedings by the Director of Public Prosecution against two Canadian girls for the murder of their 64-year-old father is a slap on our justice system. It is clear from all the evidence that there must have been even a conspiracy to commit the murder, or being accessories to it. Therefore it boggles the mind as to the termination of the prosecution.
I have spent 17 years fighting for youths doing what is right, and advocating social justice in every sphere of life, and it is much to the public and my personal disappointment that such an injustice should be perpetrated. The law must send a certain message that certain acts cannot be condoned in society. But what message are we sending to the public and our youths; that it is okay to brutally murder your parents, since the justice system will be sympathetic to you? This decision is morally and legally wrong, when we look at other cases where persons were convicted for murder based on a conspiracy. An example is the recent case wherein two women were given life imprisonment for conspiracy to commit murder of a US citizen in Berbice. Another example is the Tain murder of a man wherein a maid and the man’s wife are charged for conspiracy to commit murder and are on remand.
Accessories are as guilty as the principal in any criminal matter, and charges should have been recommended by the DPP to suit the facts of the case presented by the prosecution. This matter should not have been subjected to nolle prosequi.
In criminal law, a conspiracy is an agreement between two or more persons to commit a crime at some time in the future, and in this case, the courts should have been asked to decide whether the intention to commit the murder by the two girls was established, since the actions after the murder would have suggested that the intention existed and continued.
This does not speak well about how we dispense justice in the eyes of the public and our young generation. Is it that the legal system failed, or have the enforcers failed the system?
Yours sincerely,
Gobin Harbhajan
RDC Councillor,
Region 6
