Prominent legal figures say they support the Law Association of T&T’s (LATT) objection to amending a law to compulsorily detain people charged with firearm-related offences pending trial.
Among them is former attorney general Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj SC, who is calling on legislators to rethink the amendment because it is unconstitutional. If the law is passed, Maharaj said an attorney is on standby to challenge it in the courts.
In a statement on Sunday, LATT said it objected to Police Commissioner Gary Griffith’s plan to introduce this bail restriction as a measure to reduce the murder rate. The association said laws which indiscriminately deny the right to bail not only infringe the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty but also the right not to be deprived of liberty except by a fair process which establishes guilt based on cogent evidence.
Griffith fired back that certain members of the LATT are defence criminal attorneys seeking the interests of their clients.
“They have their clients and I have mine. My clients are the law-abiding citizens and I am here to fight for them,” the CoP declared.
He also accused Independent Senators who are defence attorneys of “using their position to help their clients.”
Griffith described the LATT’s response to his plan as hypocritical because before 2015 when a similar law was enacted “there was not a word from the Law Association.”
The Commissioner said there is a strong possibility that hundreds of homicides were committed by firearms offenders who were granted bail.
He said: “The criminal justice system is allowing criminals more rights than citizens. I am fighting for the rights of law-abiding citizens and there are certain elements in society who don’t want this.”
Maharaj, speaking in support of the LATT’s position, explained: “Under the Constitution of Trinidad and Tobago, the right to bail is a guaranteed fundamental right and the Constitution prohibits either the Parliament or the Executive from taking away the functions of the court in granting bail.”
He warned that a law that seeks to compulsorily deny bail to alleged firearm offenders “offends the basic feature of the Constitution of Trinidad and Tobago which is the doctrine of the separation of powers and will be struck down in the courts of Trinidad and Tobago and Privy Council.”
Maharaj said a similar piece of legislation introduced by the government of Mauritius was struck down by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.
While he supports Griffith’s effort to apprehend criminals, Israel Khan SC urged that legislators “not lose sight that this is a liberal democratic society and we must not punish people unnecessarily by keeping people in prison until the matter is determined.”
He said: “I believe the Commissioner is making that statement because as everyone else he is exasperated and frustrated, but everyone must come on board in solving the crime situation.”
Prominent defence attorney Wayne Sturge said Griffith’s’s logic that the Bail Amendment Bill will reduce the murder rate makes no sense since murder is already non-bailable.
“Does that prevent murders from continuing? No, in fact, murders have continued and grew exponentially, so to say that no bail measure is the panacea for crime, that is misconceived and anyone with an ounce of common sense will know that that by itself cannot be its the panacea.”
Sturge said in 2014 under the previous administration he once held the view that such amendments would work, but they failed.