MANDEVILLE, Manchester — Court of Appeal President Justice Marva McDonald-Bishop has challenged people who accuse judges of corruption to prove it.

“Persons will talk, they will say, ‘Oh, the justice system is corrupt’ or ‘The judges are corrupt’, but I say to them, and I say it boldly in relation to our judges, bring the evidence and bring it on, because I know you will never be able to prove it,” she said on Thursday in Mandeville.

“We have the judicial conduct guidelines, but guess what, they are not in a statute. They are mere directory, advisory. They are not mandatory, but we obey them, because we want a justice system that is free from corruption,” she told civic leaders, 33 newly appointed justices of the peace, and 14 lay magistrates at Church Teachers’ College.

“We have the finest set of judges in Jamaica, if I may say so. We have no need for corrupt practices, because all of us have approached the bench as a calling. Our motivation is not money, but service to humanity, to the best of our abilities and in accordance with the constitution that is the supreme law,” she added.

McDonald-Bishop was moved to issue the challenge based on a conversation she said she had with a relative who defended members of the judiciary while travelling on public transport.

“An aunt of mine called me the other day. She was in Ocho Rios in a taxi and they were slaughtering the judges who released a certain person or set of persons. I was one of them, and she was there to hear them say, ‘Yes, the judges get brown bag. Me hear seh dem get $500,000,’ and she said she turned to look at them, and I said, ‘Do not engage the public in discussion, they will shoot you,’ but she couldn’t bear it, because they were imputing corruption on her dear niece who she is so proud of, and she looked at them and said, ‘Don’t nasty up good people name,’ ” Justice McDonald-Bishop said, evoking laughter among the audience.

“Another relative wrote to me from abroad and she said, ‘You can’t sue them?’ I said, ‘I wouldn’t even stop to do that, because my accounts are transparent, my business is open to scrutiny. I have nothing to fear and I know my colleagues can say the same thing, because I know for years we suffered under low wages, bad working conditions, and we never gave up,” she told the audience.

Justice McDonald-Bishop, who has presided over high-profile and controversial cases, was a member of the three-judge panel, including justices Paulette Williams and David Fraser, who ruled against a retrial of dancehall entertainer Adidja “Vybz Kartel” Palmer and his murder co-accused last year.

Pointing to her record of service in the justice system to now being the first female president of the Court of Appeal, McDonald-Bishop said, “I don’t know how much money someone could offer me, the little girl from St Mary bush-bush who climbed the ladder painstakingly to the pride of my poor family, to take money from them to mess up my good name.

“You don’t go into the justice system with the motivation for pecuniary rewards, you just don’t. If that is your motivation, do not enter the administration of justice, because the oath you have taken or the affirmation you have made, even when you didn’t take that oath, God saw you and He heard you and He is going to hold you accountable.”

In 2023, a survey conducted by Latin America Public Opinion Project (LAPOP) of Vanderbilt University found that there was a significant decline in trust in the judiciary (46 per cent) in Jamaica. However, it noted that the trust deficit was fuelled more by perceptions of corruption rather than actual experiences.

Meanwhile, McDonald-Bishop reminded justices of the peace that their role is voluntary.

“It is not a paying office, it is free work, so the duty is to carry out the functions of the office free of charge, and it says that is deemed a requirement of the office. This is in the law, so even though you are supposed to be persons of high integrity and moral value and high standing in your community… hard life can lick you down the road, because it is a lifetime appointment unless you are removed,” she said.

“The law has it enshrined that it is free, your service is free and it is through this gate that corruption can come… and corruption can threaten the justice system of which you are a part,” she warned.