Derek Achong

The Law As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T (LATT) has crit­i­cised Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Gary Grif­fith over his com­ments against at­tor­neys, who rep­re­sent peo­ple charged with heinous crimes.

In a press re­lease is­sued yes­ter­day, the as­so­ci­a­tion claimed Grif­fith “con­tin­ues to at­tack” at­tor­neys who do not refuse cap­i­tal cas­es due to their code of ethics.

“Every cit­i­zen of T&T en­joys fun­da­men­tal free­doms guar­an­teed by our Con­sti­tu­tion, in­clud­ing the right to be rep­re­sent­ed by an at­tor­ney-at-law. When the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice at­tacks this fun­da­men­tal free­dom for per­sons ac­cused of crimes, he at­tacks the rights of every cit­i­zen of this coun­try,” it said.

The as­so­ci­a­tion sug­gest­ed that Grif­fith’s com­ments, made in re­sponse to its press re­lease in re­la­tion to pub­lic out­cry over vi­o­lence against women, were de­signed to de­flect at­ten­tion away from mat­ters un­der his purview in­clud­ing the re­ceipt of com­plaints of crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty; the prompt and thor­ough in­ves­ti­ga­tion of such re­ports; the gath­er­ing, man­age­ment and stor­age of ev­i­dence; the ap­pre­hen­sion of sus­pects; and the par­tic­i­pa­tion of po­lice of­fi­cers in sub­se­quent pros­e­cu­tions.

“The Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice has of­fered the pub­lic no as­sur­ances as to how the po­lice ser­vice will bet­ter per­form its func­tions in or­der to en­sure a re­duc­tion in crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty, the speedy de­ter­mi­na­tion of crim­i­nal pro­ceed­ings, and an in­creased con­vic­tion rate,” it said.

“De­ter­min­ing guilt is a mat­ter for the Courts and, where ap­plic­a­ble, ju­ries. Sen­tenc­ing is a mat­ter for the Courts and not the po­lice,” it added, as it not­ed that the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) has to ac­cept re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for its role in the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem and the low rate of con­vic­tions.

The as­so­ci­a­tion sought to ad­dress the deaths of two sus­pects in An­drea Bhar­rat’s death, who died while in po­lice cus­tody.

“The demise of these two sus­pects while in po­lice cus­tody means that there can be no charges laid against them, no tri­al, and no in­ter­ro­ga­tion or de­ter­mi­na­tion of their guilt,” it said.

“The mur­der of An­drea Bhar­rat re­mains un­solved, and solv­ing it may in­volve con­fronting and deal­ing with the fact that the dead sus­pects may not have been in­volved at all,” it added.

It sug­gest­ed that Grif­fith should work with the Po­lice Com­plaints Au­thor­i­ty (PCA) on its in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the deaths of the sus­pects.

“The Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice can­not sep­a­rate cit­i­zen from crea­ture for we are all cre­at­ed equal. We are all en­ti­tled to the pro­tec­tion of our Con­sti­tu­tion and due process of law,” it said.

The re­cent dis­cord be­tween Grif­fith and the as­so­ci­a­tion stemmed from its re­lease is­sued ear­li­er this week in which it claimed that the de­nial of bail and the en­force­ment of the manda­to­ry death penal­ty for mur­der would not have the tout­ed ef­fect on vi­o­lent crime.

The as­so­ci­a­tion al­so de­nounced pub­lic at­tacks on at­tor­neys who par­tic­i­pate in cap­i­tal cas­es.

Grif­fith, in re­sponse, ac­cused the as­so­ci­a­tion of do­ing pub­lic re­la­tions work for the ben­e­fit of crim­i­nal clients.

“They speak of the un­solved mur­ders, but con­ve­nient­ly ig­nore the many cold-blood­ed killers who they rep­re­sent, who are present­ly on Death Row, who pay these same de­fence at­tor­neys big mon­ey to get them freed, to cause more dis­tress to law-abid­ing cit­i­zens,” Grif­fith said.