Chef Justice Ivor Archie and the members of the Judicial and Legal Service Commission “must do the honourable thing and step down.”
That’s the view of Senior Counsel Martin Daly after the Judiciary issued a statement yesterday saying the 53 part-heard matters left by former chief magistrate Marcia Ayers-Caesar now have to be restarted as ‘de novo’.
The decision to restart the matters de novo was taken at a meeting on Wednesday convened by CJ Archie and which comprised the Director of Public Prosecutions, vice president of the Law Association, members of the Criminal Bar, Acting Chief Magistrate, senior magistrates and the Registrar of the Supreme Court.
But Daly said the “restarting of the 53 part-heard matters is the inevitable but shameful result of a serious blunder of the Judicial and Legal Service Commission, for which they are yet to shoulder responsibility.” He said it was “shocking that the release does not contain an apology or any kind of pardon.”
The outspoken Daly said he stood firmly by his initial position that “the Chief Justice and the JLSC should do the honourable thing. That has not changed and the lack of an apology in the release has done nothing to soften my position.”
Daly added: “I certainly hope that public spirited lawyers will examine whether the accused persons who are not on bail have been deprived of the protection of the law under the Constitution and in effect have been put in double jeopardy unless they get bail now.”
Head of the Criminal Bar Association Pamela Elder SC meanwhile accused Archie of “bumbling and fumbling” his way through the judicial mess he created when he elevated Ayers-Caesar to the bench with the part-heard matters unresolved.
Today makes it just about one month since the judicial mess unravelled and even with the announcement that the matters will be heard de novo, and a commitment from the Judiciary that they will be “prioritised,” there is no clarity on just how the matters could proceed with urgency, she said.
Elder was not invited to Wednesday’s meeting, but said if she were there she would have a number of questions.
“Why all those legal minds just realised the matters had to be restarted de novo? Why wasn’t the courtesy extended to the attorneys involved in those part heard matters to attend the meeting and articulate their views? Would the transcripts of evidence of the former proceedings be made available free of charge to attorneys?”
Elder also noted the CJ offered “no apology” for the length of time it took to come to a decision which many attorneys had determined since the situation unfolded more than a month ago. She said if the CJ wanted the cooperation of attorneys involved in the affected cases, courtesy demanded that he spoke to them.
“If you are looking to restart, what concessions will be made to attorneys who already have matters scheduled? I stress if you want the cooperation of attorneys you should speak to the attorneys involved,” Elder said.
“What is their expectation? You have caused the chaos, you have not spoken to the attorneys involved and you expect them to waltz into court and say I am ready to start over a matter! That is a wholly unreasonable expectation with all due respect to the CJ.”
Elder would not say whether attorneys representing the accused may want to make applications for the matters to be stayed. But other legal sources told the T&T Guardian that attorneys can file constitutional motions seeking stays on their clients’ matters.
One attorney said lawyers representing the accused can argue that it is not fair to try their clients afresh because of their inability to locate critical defence witnesses or find money to pay for their defence.
Reinstate her - Khan
Senior Counsel Israel Khan said yesterday’s decision “demonstrates that the entire JLSC is not au courant with the criminal justice system as it relates to preliminary inquiries.” He said “through the faux pas of the JLSC and lack of due diligence, hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars have to be spent on the matters which they need to fast track.”
Khan was also upset because given the decision, “the JLSC should not have forced Ayers-Caesar to resign, they should have left her as a judge and let other magistrates take up the matters. But their first instinct was to sacrifice her when all of them wrong.”
He added that “everything must be done to reinstate her as a judge. It is not too late.” He also wanted to know “why did it take so long to decide that the matters needed to be restarted de novo.”
Yesterday’s statement said acting Chief Magistrate Maria Busby Earle-Caddle will preside over the indictable matters, while all the summary matters will be assigned to a magistrate at the St George West Magistrates’ Court. Eight other court matters which have not been started will be managed by the Acting Deputy Chief Magistrate.
