LOCAL human rights watchdog, Jamaicans For Justice (JFJ), in light of the review ordered to determine the correctness of techniques and standards used in the Bob Woolmer post-mortem, has asked that a similar review be done in several cases involving ordinary Jamaicans.

“Mr Minister, we ask why this case (Bob Woolmer) demands review and not the countless other cases of ‘anonymous’ Jamaicans, most of them black and poor, many children included?”

These cases, the rights organisation said, include those in which:

. scenes have not been protected, preserved or examined by forensic units;

. there have been allegations (and evidence) of wilful disturbance of the scene and destruction of evidence;

. bodies have been removed from scenes before photographs have been taken, despite clear evidence that the person is dead;

. bodies have been moved from the scene to take them to hospital, but have not been taken immediately to the hospital;

. families have not been visited by the police (except to attempt to bribe or threaten or intimidate them);

. families have been refused permission to see the bodies of their loved ones for days, because it is a police case;

. the initial investigating officer on the scene says he saw nothing because it was dark and he had no flashlight, like the case of Jason Smith;

. the firearms register comes to court with relevant pages missing, and then is burned up in an unexplained fire at a police station, like that of Janice Allen;

. the clothing of the deceased is being discarded at the time of the post-mortem, and is only recovered when the observer indicates an interest in them (Sandra Sewell and Gayon Alcott);

. the post-mortems have been done in the dark obscurity of the abominable Spanish Town morgue (the majority of which have no oversight whatsoever, including no observers in attendance; no photographic record of body or post-mortem; no review of the post-mortem report by other pathologists local or overseas, forensic or otherwise);

. there have been reports of obstruction and hostility on the part of the pathologists and the police to the presence of and requests for independent observers representing the families of the deceased;

. no observers have been available for Jamaican families because of the local pathologists’ refusal to get involved, and in those few cases where there have been observers, there have been statements that the post-mortem don’t meet international standards, and questions are raised about the competence of the pathologists, the inadequacy of the post-mortem reports; and where

. post-mortems have not been conducted for up to two months, and where bodies have decomposed because of the delays, to the point where potential evidence regarding the cause and circumstances of the death has been lost.

“Mr Minister, did none of these cases and circumstances need an administrative review into the appropriateness of the techniques and the standards of professionalism employed by the police investigators, as well as the medical and other professional personnel? Do none of these cases bring into focus the need for the most up-to-date forensic capabilities and the construction of a new public morgue? Do none of these families need closure? Do ordinary Jamaicans, out of the media spotlight, not need assurance too?” the rights group asked yesterday in a press statement.