LETTER OF THE DAY: An indictment of the criminal justice system

The Editor, Sir:

I believe the real victim of the extradition request and the process that ensued was our criminal justice system. It is a travesty that it took the United States, a foreign authority, to build a case against a Jamaican citizen, who had long been alleged by the police and citizens to be responsible for masterminding a transnational criminal enterprise.

The question is: why didn't our law-enforcement institutions and, more broadly, our criminal justice system possess the capacity to marshall the necessary evidence to convict those who are guilty and restore law and order to Tivoli Garden and downtown Kingston?

Many will suggest that the immunity of Tivoli Gardens was enabled by the links between the criminals and high-ranking officials in political establishment, the police and private businesses. Nonetheless, our criminal justice system did not possess the independence, integrity and robustness required to secure truth, justice and public order.

The ineptitude of our criminal justice system was further highlighted by the decision of Christopher Coke to waive his right to a local extradition trial and also earlier by his attempts to bypass the Jamaican law-enforcement institutions and to be taken directly to the US Embassy because, according to him, he feared for his life.

While his fear might have been fuelled by what happened to his father (who died under questionable circumstances while he was waiting to be extradited), his decision to waive that right in 2010 must be deemed a slap in the face of our criminal justice system.

'Competent authority'

The fact also that our own criminal justice system was able to secure his safety, airlift him to a maximum-security facility, secured an extradition hearing in less than 48 hours and did all we could to have him handed over to what must be perceived as a more 'competent authority' is certainly an indictment on our own criminal justice system.

Indeed, the war on crime and violence will never be won if criminals and the police continue to believe that our criminal justice system is impotent to deliver swift, tough and fair justice. This is not time for political gamesmanship. This is not just about the police force or our tainted political system. This is about our total system of criminal justice, where neither its custodians nor its apparatuses are fit for modern Jamaica.

I am, etc.,

STEADMAN NOBLE

teddynob@yahoo.com

Chelmsford, Essex