By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

AFTER a man, who was out on bail for six murders, was killed in a double homicide Monday, National Security Minister Wayne Munroe said it’s unacceptable that someone accused of multiple murders can be released on bail and added that his ministry intends to push the courts to keep suspected killers on remand.

Mr Munroe said keeping alleged offenders on remand was best for the safety of all because he explained that there have been too many incidents where innocent people have become victims of gun violence due to their association with the intended target.

Mr Munroe was also clear that keeping them behind bars does not mean the courts would be removing their presumption of innocence, adding “what we’re saying is you may well be innocent, but our history is showing that people are coming to kill you”.

“We are finding in this country that when you are charged, people come for you,” added Mr Munroe. “When they come for you, they affect innocent bystanders so we are going to be urging the court that there should be (on) remand not only for the person’s safety, but the public’s safety.

“Because we’ve seen many incidents so far where other persons have been caught up.”

Mr Munroe said a prime example of this was seen just Monday night when two men involved in a conversation in Fox Hill Park were approached by armed men who fatally shot them.

One of those men was out on bail for six murders, while the other was not known to police.

“It is unacceptable that somebody could be on bail for six murders,” Mr Munroe continued. “Again, the second person who was killed, I have no adverse information about him in the quick briefing that they sent me, but that continues to highlight that your association could put you in harm’s way.

“There’s an old story in the royal readers about the parrot who goes out and hangs with the crows and is killed and the parents always tell you that if you were not with the crows found, you’d be home safe and sound. So, we need to start to harken (back) to the old messages.”

The killing of yet another man on bail has highlighted the need for criminal trials to be held faster.

Yesterday, Mr Munroe conceded that officials are making headway to address the “vexing problem of moving trials forward”.

One such way to help achieve this, he added, is finding lawyers to temporarily sit in for judges who are out on vacation.

“I noticed that the Supreme Court is asking to identify persons who may wish to serve in temporary services as judges,” he said. “This goes back to a point and the chief justice is clearly responsive to it - that if we have ten judges hearing criminal matters who have five weeks’ vacation in a year. That’s 50 weeks you lose.

“So, if we find lawyers to sit in those courts for those 50 weeks, then you get one year of trial time automatically. It’s like you get an extra judge without actually having to appoint and find a new courtroom and so I’m happy to see that announcement and I’m happy to see that the chief justice is seeking to take steps to address this vexing problem of moving trials forward.”

Mr Munroe acknowledged that a lot of time was lost during the pandemic, but stressed: “We now have to make up time.”

Yesterday, the minister also gave an update on meetings held with the director of public prosecutions (DPP), saying issues discussed were related to the fast tracking of firearm matters among other things.

“I’m hopeful that we will get an assignment of magistrates to accomplish a turnaround time that we would wish to see, a disposition time of four to five weeks from arraignment for simple matters,” he also said. “The other matter of highlighting for want of a better word, ‘slam dunk cases’, to move those through the system quickly. The police have in fact created a listing of those.

“I would need to be briefed on how they’re progressing through the system because they would meet a docket that the judge already had, and they will be working through so how we come up with a system to try this list of cases that we can get through quickly because you have electronic monitoring evidence of where the person was committing the offence, CCTV footage, other forensic evidence is what we are seeking to do because those matters you should be able to move quickly.”