Editor Amandala
Dear Sir,
We are a Third World Country with First World problems, which the authorities think that we’ll solve by First World methods. They will not work. For example, the First World solution to witness intimidation is a Witness Protection Program. Where are we going to get the resources to implement such a program? Also, what protection can the authorities offer to members of the witnesses’ family when they are threatened with bodily harm?
Without the testimony of eyewitnesses who are prepared to give evidence in court against the accused, our system for the administration of justice collapses.
We have to find a solution to the problem of witness intimidation because we can’t live in a society where there is no personal security. Judging by the number of nolle prosequies in cases of murder and applying the law of probability to the statistics, leads us to the conclusion that a lot of murderers have been allowed to re-enter the society as free men.
The suggestion put forward by Kenneth Gale in a recent article in a local newspaper makes a lot of sense. Mr. Gale was a former judge of a State Supreme Court in America. What they did in his jurisdiction was to allow the witness in a murder case to give sworn testimony in the preliminary inquiry, and be subject to cross examination also at the preliminary inquiry, with the procedures later forming a part of the trial record in the Supreme Court. This measure has been tried and proven to be affective, Mr. Gale affirms. I think he should be commended for bringing it to our attention.
I would go a step further. I think there should be a special law against the intimidation of witnesses to include inter alia that on a complaint by a prospective witness to a crime of violence or being threatened with bodily harm made before a Justice of the Peace, that the alleged intimidator should be charged and tried in a court of summary jurisdiction as a matter of urgency. Most important of all, the penalty for this offence should absolutely deter further offences. I have it on the authority of a former Superintendent of Prisons that there is only one penalty besides capital punishment that absolutely deters, and that is the “Rod of Correction.”
Finally, I suggest that there be established a tribunal of three senior Justices of the Peace, persons of the highest integrity, who will judge the facts with unfailing wisdom and not be unduly influenced by the status of legal counsel.
Yours Sincerely,
C. B. Hyde