By JADE RUSSELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

jrussell@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Philip “Brave” Davis said a significant challenge to swift justice is the avoidance of jury duty.

“Many Bahamians don’t want to serve,” he said. “We talk about swift justice, but we need to encourage people that when they’re called upon to provide service, to do so as part of their civil duty. But then anytime they see their name, they go try to make excuses to be excused.”

Mr Davis spoke during a Q&A session at the Fox Hill Community Centre, which featured constituency residents.

A man asked the prime minister about solutions to the lack of swift justice, stressing that delays have led to people becoming disgruntled waiting for resolutions.

Mr Davis said solving crimes isn’t the issue, with someone arrested or charged in 90 per cent of murder cases. He said the “elephant in the room” for many years is having the necessary resources available in the courts.

He said trials used to finish much quicker and noted the government’s plan to increase the number of judges.

 “I would finish a murder trial with the judges within a week,” he said. “The longest trial I had back in the day in a murder was two weeks. That’s a long time. But today, a murder trial taking two, three months. So, something is happening. I’ve raised this matter as well, that we need to see why trials are taking so long.”

 National Security Minister Wayne Munroe, who attended the event, said he plans to write Chief Justice Sir Ian Winder about various concerns.

 “We now have 12 judges who all have five weeks vacation, which is 60 weeks a year, which is over a year of trial time,” he said. “So, we’ll tend to canvass all of the system issues that the prime minister is talking about and perhaps get a bit creative.”

 Mr Munroe said there would be talks with the judiciary and private Bar members about expediting the trial process.