Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

The pre-tri­al phase of the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem is in cri­sis due to an over­all av­er­age of 37,933 pend­ing in­dictable mat­ters at dis­trict courts with ap­prox­i­mate­ly 8,835 mat­ters join­ing the list an­nu­al­ly, At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Regi­nald Ar­mour told Par­lia­ment yes­ter­day.

As he pi­lot­ed the Ad­min­is­tra­tion of Jus­tice In­dictable Pro­ceed­ings (Amend­ment) Bill to elim­i­nate pre­lim­i­nary in­quiries and “fast-track” cas­es, he said, “The bill is in­deed a sig­nif­i­cant step in re­duc­ing the en­dem­ic de­lay in the crim­i­nal tri­al process. It is un­de­ni­able that there have been sig­nif­i­cant re­forms in our jus­tice sys­tem over the last 12 years and yet, with the ex­ist­ing sys­tem of pre­lim­i­nary in­quiries, the re­forms are not suf­fi­cient­ly tan­gi­ble.

“This fast track tri­al law is in­tend­ed to ex­pe­dite the process of crim­i­nal tri­als to move us from the re­al­i­ty we now ex­ist in where on av­er­age it takes two to three years to fin­ish a pre­lim­i­nary in­quiry while the ac­cused are in jail.”

Ar­mour added, “In some in­stances, we know of pre­lim­i­nary in­quiries that have not yet been com­plet­ed and are in train for 15 years! That’s why this leg­is­la­tion is be­ing re­ferred to as the fast track tri­al law be­cause we want to give peo­ple their en­ti­tle­ment ac­cord­ing to jus­tice to be tried in a speedy, ef­fi­cient, and fair man­ner as is pos­si­ble to bring re­lief to the ac­cused as well as the vic­tims and fam­i­lies.”

The AG said the sta­tis­tics show that as of March there were ap­prox­i­mate­ly 37,933 pend­ing in­dictable mat­ters at dis­trict courts.

“That means there are 37,933 se­ri­ous crim­i­nal of­fences, in­clud­ing mur­ders, at­tempt­ed mur­ders, rob­beries, rapes, traf­fick­ing in per­son, mis­be­hav­iour in pub­lic of­fice, and oth­er types of fraud that are cur­rent­ly pend­ing at the pre-tri­al stage,” he added.

“These num­bers rep­re­sent thou­sands of per­sons whose lives have been dis­rupt­ed and who wait anx­ious­ly for some form of progress and/or clo­sure in re­spect of a crim­i­nal tri­al which has fol­lowed them like a shad­ow for many years.”

To add to this “stag­ger­ing num­ber”, he said, is the av­er­age of 8,835 in­dictable mat­ters filed an­nu­al­ly which now joins the queue.

“This sim­ply can­not be al­lowed to con­tin­ue no mat­ter what oth­er con­sid­er­a­tions are brought to bear,” he said.

More crit­i­cal­ly, he added, the work of con­duct­ing pre­lim­i­nary in­quiries is shared be­tween the Of­fice of the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions and the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice. The Of­fice of the DPP is tasked with the con­duct of the most se­ri­ous, high-pro­file mat­ters, the pre­lim­i­nary in­quiries of the high­est pub­lic in­ter­est, among the oth­er work to which it is com­mit­ted.

Cur­rent­ly, the Of­fice of the DPP has un­der its con­duct ap­prox­i­mate­ly 2,120 pre­lim­i­nary in­quiries.

“For the pe­ri­od 2013-2023, the Of­fice of the DPP has con­clud­ed 900 pre­lim­i­nary in­quiries, an av­er­age of ap­prox­i­mate­ly 90 PIs per an­num be­ing com­plet­ed by the Of­fice of the DPP,” Ar­mour said.

He said TTPS sta­tis­tics for 2013 to 2023 demon­strate the as­tro­nom­i­cal num­ber of pre­lim­i­nary in­quiries, which av­er­ages be­tween 4,000 to 6,000 an­nu­al­ly with a grand to­tal of 55,037 for the past decade.

“Fur­ther, there’s cur­rent­ly an alarm­ing back­log of 11,707 pre­lim­i­nary in­quiries be­fore the TTPS. These sta­tis­tics alone demon­strate the crit­i­cal need to im­me­di­ate­ly pass this bill to re­move this pro­tract­ed PI process from our crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem which clear­ly over­bur­dens law-en­force­ment re­sources,” Ar­mour said.

There was no fur­ther de­bate since the House halt­ed at 3.11 pm yes­ter­day, ear­li­er than nor­mal, ad­journ­ing to a date to be fixed.