MINISTER of Justice Delroy Chuck wants people arrested for misdemeanours to allow their cases to go through the new Plea Negotiations and Agreement Act 2017 in order to help speed up the resolution of criminal cases.

“Those persons who are on the borderline, innocent or guilty, their cases can be moved up the conveyor belt and decided earlier so that justice can be done in a timely manner,” Chuck told the House of Representatives last week.

He was introducing the Bill which seeks to give statutory recognition to plea bargaining and agreements which, prior to its enactment, are being conducted by the director of public prosecutions under common law rules.

Chuck insisted that the new Bill, which had its genesis under former minister of justice, Senator Mark Golding, can be “game changer”, in terms of people charged with these crimes having their cases dealt with in a timely manner.

The minister urged his colleagues in Parliament to read the Bill and help to spread information on its value to the court system.

“I certainly want it to be circulated widely among all defence counsels, Bar Association members, and persons who are interested in the criminal justice system,” he told the House.

The Memorandum of Objects and reasons of the new Bill, which will eventually repeal the current Criminal Justice (Plea Negotiations and Agreement) Act, has been underutilised, and so Senator Golding had appointed a working group to identify problems contributing to its underutilisation.

The working group, headed by (retired) Justice Karl Harrison, recommended changes to the current statutory framework conducive to achieving desired objectives. Their report was considered and, consequent upon the change of Government in March 2016, further consultations were made by the new Administration resulting in the drafting of the Bill.

The Bill seeks to:

• Widen the definition of prosecutor to include people who are granted fiats to prosecute cases and persons who initiate private prosecutions;

• Provide for post-sentence plea negotiations;

• Confirm the power of the plea judge to reduce penalties for assistance provided to the crown, or to impose lesser sentences than would have otherwise been imposed, having regard to the degree to which the administration of justice has been facilitated by the accused persons or his attorney; and

• Empowering the judge to order that records of negotiations or an agreement be sealed where the judge is satisfied that the sealing of the records is in the interest of the effective administration of justice.

Chuck used the example of a Jamaican man who recently pleaded guilty to a burglary charge, after waiting since 2002 for the case to be disposed, as evidence of the under-usage of current plea negotiations or bargaining in non-serious crimes.

He said that the new Bill extends the framework for plea negotiations and agreements for people charged with crimes not considered serious to facilitate such issues, whether the accuse assists the investigations or not. However, more leniency would be shown to persons who assist the investigations.