Archive for November, 2013
Moves begin to make fake guns illegal
(CNS):Government has begun a consultation period to make the Firearms Law stricter and to help the police and crown secure convictions in cases where people have a fake gun in their possession or where any kind of unlicensed firearm has been merely handled by a suspect. The police are also seeking to have the power to stop and search suspects, their cars or homes without a warrant, based on suspicion of possessing a firearm. The public consultation on the redrafting of the Firearms Law began Friday and the community has until 18 Dec.to comment and offer their input on the proposed legislative amendment, which could prove to have severe consequences for anyone who comes into contact with a gun or has a toy firearm in their possession, even if they have no intention of using it to commit a crime.
Despite his own reservations in the past about the tendency for the authorities to want to pass stiffer laws that erode certain freedoms rather than improving evidence gathering, Premier Alden McLaughlin, who is an attorney and now the home affairs minister, has called on the public to take part in this consultation. He said the changes were aimed at addressing what appears to be a recent increase in gun crime.
“We are trying to address recent trends that we have seen come through the system. Public input will help to ensure that the legislation is as effective as possible,” Alden McLaughlin said in a release announcing the public discussion period.
However, the government has attempted to legislate itself out of crime waves before to no avail. The imposition of a mandatory minimum sentence of ten years for possession of an unlicensed firearm appears to have had little effect on the use of guns in crime and the amount of weapons that still seem be in circulation.
Speaking in the Legislative Assembly in 2010, ahead of a number of legislative changes relating to the criminal justice system, McLaughlin pointed to an “emerging trend” in changes to legislation that appeared to be designed to strengthen the hand of the prosecution and give the crown a better chance at conviction.
“There has been a trend by the attorney general over the course of the past few years to continuously and consistently adjust and amend the various pieces of legislation or to create new provisions to constantly strengthen the hand of the prosecution in relation to its conduct,” McLaughlin said in a debate about amendments to the Court of Appeal Law, which provided for the state to appeal cases on wider issues than just on a point of law.
He said at the time that this trend of amending legislation to make it easier for the crown to get a conviction was very worrying to all lawyers and those who cared about civil liberties because loading the legal system in favour of the state could undermine Cayman’s system of justice and democracy.
Nevertheless, he is now backing the amendments to the law, which will see the possession of fake, modified or even real looking toy guns become illegal and make a mere passing touch of a firearm a crime, as well as giving police more powers of search without a warrant.
Under the current legislation having an imitation gun is not a crime unless the police can show that the person who has it intended to use it to commit an offence such as a robbery. As a result, in order to lay charges against those that have imitation weapons in their possession the police must be able to also demonstrate that the suspects were planning to use it in a crime. The proposed legislation removes that requirement and makes the possession of anything that looks like a real gun or that has been modified to operate like a firearm illegal and could result in ten years jail time even if no other crime has been committed.
In the wake of a number of failed cases brought by the crown where suspects have been linked to weapons through DNA but where there has been not enough evidence to secure a conviction of possession of an unlicensed firearm, the authorities are seeking to improve the crown’s chance at conviction by introducing the crime of handling. This will remove the requirement for the prosecution to prove in court that a suspect was in possession of the gun and care and control of the weapon in question.
With the amendment the prosecution would just have to prove that they had touched it. Upon conviction, if the authorities succeed in creating this new crime, a person could go to jail for up to ten years.
The draft bill also lays out far greater powers of detention and search for police and customs officers. The legislation proposes that if any law enforcement official has a reasonable cause to believe that a firearm or bullet-proof vest may be concealed, they can search the person, their bag, car or home without first securing a warrant.
A copy of the proposed law is posted below and it is also available on the government website and on the courts' website.
Anyone wishing to comment on the law should send their contribution to Tesia Scott tesia.scott@gov.ky, or c/o the Attorney General’s Chambers, Fifth Floor,Government Administration Building no later than 18 December 2013.
Vote in the CNS Polls:
Should possession of a fake gun be illegal without proof of intent to commit a crime?
Should handling a gun be a criminal offence without proof of intent to commit a crime?
NBF grants 3x$ scholarships
(CNS): Some students who received education grants from former premier McKeeva Bush’s controversial Nation Building Fund (NBF) were receiving three and a half times the maximum scholarship given to students through the normal procedure administered by the Education Council. Several of the students receiving annual grants of around $70k are related to UDP members, including the former political advisor to Bush, the party leader. Premier Alden McLaughlin reluctantly revealed more details in the Legislative Assembly on Thursday about the NBF as he wound up the debate on the Strategic Policy Statement (SPS) following criticisms from Bush regarding the PPM's plans to reduce the grants for the 2014 academic year in line with other scholarships.
During his long response to the SPS, which focused mostly on his concerns about what he called the neo-colonialism of the UK and their unlawful tapping of his phone, Bush, now the opposition leader, also accused McLaughlin of not wanting to help Caymanian students and of playing politics by pulling the scholarship funding from those who received the grants under the NBF.
However, the premier hit back and said that so far the PPM had been discreet about what had really gone on with the NBF scholarships because it involved young people but the opposition leader’s criticisms of the government’s decision to regularize the grants demanded that he reveal the truth. Despite efforts by Bush to stop him on a point of order, the speaker pointed out that there was no point of order and allowed the premier to continue with the revelations, which were supported by documentation.
“It would be hard to conceive of a more disastrous programme or disastrous set of circumstances surrounding these grants,” McLaughlin stated. “There was little in terms of a system and the premier was the person deciding who got the scholarships.”
Pointing out that the fund would be the subject of an auditor general’s report, he said the scholarships have been given to some students who are not attending any institutions; ones for colleges that didn’t even exist and some students were receiving grants from other government sources as well as the NBF. He pointed to at least four students who were getting over $70,000 per year, more than three times the $20,000 annual maximum given to students on Education Council scholarships.
McLaughlin said the decision on who got what was made entirely by the former premier, with no proper systems in place. When a committee was finally established, he said, there was no one on it with education experience, and Bush still made the decision. The premier also revealed that when a proper application form was eventually drawn up with criteria that capped the scholarships at $25,000 per year, he still allowed the children of political supporters to go way beyond that.
McLaughlin said the grants were decided on the basis of who was able to speak to Bush, the premier at the time, and pointed to many grants being given to people directly associated with the UDP.
The premier said government was not stopping the funding because of politics, even though they had been given out under political circumstances; it was to create a level playing field. He explained that the students were still receiving the amounts they had been promised during this academic year, but next Autumn the grants would be reduced to $20,000, as it was blatantly unfair that the daughter of a UDP supporter got $70,000 per year to go to high school while other students in Cayman were waiting to get anything at all.
“There are students that can’t get a scholarship at all under the regular programme because the scholarship they should have got has been spent on students who got them under the Nation Building Fund with no checks and balances,” he said. “It was a complete and utter shambles,” the premier added as he described what his government found when they began to examine what was going on. “The then premier operated this out of his back pocket.”
McLaughlin suggested that the opposition leader had no grounds to criticise the current government for trying to regularize and create some equality, and with more than $13 million in the current budget for scholarships, the administration could hardly be described as not wanting to help Caymanian students. He also pointed to his own vision and commitment to education, which he said he was still taking licks for.
The review of the NBF scholarship, the premier said, was about the "inequity inherent in this programme”, which has given a small number of students huge sums of money while disadvantaging others. “It should not be down to which party you support; it should be on merit.”
McLaughlin challenged Bush to present the evidence that this programme was fair and transparent and he was not politically involved in every single grant. The way the NBF grants were given, he said, was the best example of how to destroy a nation rather than build it because favouring people on the basis of support for a politician instead of merit was divisive.
“We are not insensitive that these are young people with drive and that’s why we are not cutting off funding, but it can’t be on a different basis and we can’t continue a system not based on merit but how well you knew the premier.”
Although Speaker of the House Juliana O'Connor-Connolly had prevented Bush from interrupting the premier, when he had finished she allowed Bush to make a short statement, in which he said there was a committee of three people from his office and that applications for the NBF grants were referred to his chief of staff.
He said his only involvement was the final approval. The goal, he said, was to help as many people as possible and there were circumstances where some students needed more funding than others. In those circumstances, Bush said, a decision was taken depending on the benefits that may follow for the country.
Ex-cop acquitted of beating
(CNS): A former police officer who was convicted by a jury of malicious wounding and sentenced to six months in prison after badly beating a man during an early morning off-duty arrest more than four years ago has been cleared by the Court of Appeal. Rabe Welcome, who was fired from the RCIPS following his conviction last June, has had that conviction discharged after his successful appeal and the higher court refused the crown’s request for a retrial. The judges said the trial judge in his summing up to the jury did not make it clear that his guilt or otherwise was not just a matter of whether or not the defendant did or didn’t use reasonable force but whether he honestly believed it to be necessary, even if it was excessive.
Welcome was convicted in June 2012 and sentenced the following October. However, because he appealed the sentence he spent only a few days in jail as he was bailed pending the hearing.
The appeal was heard last week but the Cayman Islands Court of Appeal delivered its ruling Thursday afternoon, when the panel quashed the conviction on the point regarding the jury direction and delivered a not guilty verdict. An application by crown counsel Michael Snape for a retrial was immediately rejected by the president of the CICA, Sir John Chadwick, as he said it was not a case on which the court felt there should be anothertrial.
The appeal court explained that the issue was a question of whether or not Welcome believed at the time that he needed to use the force regardless of whether others would see it as reasonable or not. As a result, a more specific direction should have been given to the jury because the defendant should have been judged on his belief of what he was doing was necessary.
The appeal panel said that there was “real doubt” whether there was enough to alert the jury to the possibility that he had felt or honestly believed what he was doing was reasonable. The judges noted, however, that if they had not set the conviction aside, they would not have overturned the sentence as they did not think the six months was harsh or excessive.
Welcome had been convicted on charges relating to malicious wounding after he had broken the arm of Adolphus Myrie and caused him other injuries at the Red Bay Esso station during an early morning altercation and a subsequent arrest, when the then RCIPS officer was off-duty.
Following his conviction and at the time of sentencing Justice Alex Henderson pointed to the need in this case to deter police officers from using excessive force and to send a message that such abuse of power would not be tolerated.
The judge said that although Welcome had no previous convictions or disciplinary violations, had good character references and there was a low risk of re-offending, given the circumstances, he felt a custodial sentence was necessary and he handed down the six month term.
Welcome was arrested following the incident and suspended from duty for some three years until his trial in the summer of 2012, after which he was dismissed from his job.
The incident was caught on CCTV, and although there was a degree of provocation as Myrie had threatened Welcome and two other off duty officers with a machete, at the time Welcome actually beat Myrie he was unarmed.
First three Employees of the Month announced
(CNS): Women have made a clean sweep of the first three Deputy Governor’s Employee of the Month awards for the government fiscal year that began on 1 July 2013. GIS reports that the women are from diverse backgrounds but the one common thread that bonds them is their dedication to duty and to uphold the core values expected of all civil servants. When Deputy Governor Franz Manderson presented the awards recently, each monthly winner received a plaque inscribed with their name and achievement. September’s award went to Detective Sergeant in the Family Support Unit of the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service, Doris Morris-Herrera (left).
Lauding the recipients for being role models to every civil servant, Manderson named Computer Services Helpdesk Support Administrator I, Tracey Gale, as his chosen employee for July. The honours for August have gone to Shift Commander and Health & Safety Officer at Her Majesty’s Cayman Islands Prison Service, Julia King.
Known for her humility and dedication to her job, Gale is hailed as having been instrumental to rebuilding government’s computer network infrastructure system.
Presenting Gale with her award, Manderson extolled her capability to “consistently go above and beyond the call of duty to provide the best service” to all government employees. “I understand that you always strive for the best, and seek opportunities to improve services,” he said.
He added, “Dating back to Hurricane Ivan and up to the recent deployment of a new Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server, your achievement of the department’s goals has been paramount to many successes in Computer Services and across the Cayman Islands Government. It is for these reasons that you were named the ‘Most Dedicated’.” DHCP provides improved access to Government network users.
Gale commented, “I am truly honoured to receive this unexpected award as well as the Chief Officer’s award for July. It has been a real privilege to be nominated, but then to be chosen is something extremely special. I would like to thank the Deputy Governor and Chief Officer for this honour. I have to recognise my colleague Keisha Leslie as an exceptional teammate; together we make our little Helpdesk team work smoothly.”
August awardee King’s steadfast commitment to making a difference, doing the right thing, as well as making an impact on her staff, are cited as some of the qualities that underscored her selection.
Noting that King was named the “Most Committed” by her nominees, Manderson said she was chosen because of her commitment to doing the right thing, and making a positive impact on everyone she interacted with. Her services were all the more valuable because she holds both herself and others around her accountable for their contribution, he commented.
Despite facing serious obstacles in her work, he added that King’s commitment had not swerved over all her years in the prison service.
In response, King said, “I am deeply humbled to have first been nominated by the Prison Service for the Deputy Governor’s Award and secondly to have been selected for both the Chief Officer’s Award and the Deputy Governor’s Award for August. I am honoured to have been recognised and I want to thank themanagement team for the Prison Service for putting my name forward.
“I choose a career in corrections 28 years ago in Nottingham, England and came to the Cayman Islands on a secondment 13 years ago. I’ve never regretted my choice for a single day. I’ve committed my life to community safety and rehabilitation of prisoners and I love my job!”
Named the “Most Resilient and Flexible” by her employers, September award recipient Morris-Herrera’s proposal for a Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (M.A.S.H.) reflected her passion for protecting juveniles and enhancing family well-being, the Deputy Governor said, presenting her the award. The multi-agency proposal aims to enable all child protection agencies to share information to ensure the safety of at-risk children (including those abused) to prevent serious injuries or worse, death.
Equally passionate about improving service delivery, the police officer excelled at managing client expectations, he noted. In return k she received admiration, trust and respect.
Appreciating her abilities to give praise where due and her positive approach, Manderson underscored her professionalism and dedication to her job. This is demonstrated, he said, by her parting comment each time she leaves work: ‘I am only a call away.”
On receiving her awards, Morris-Herrera commented: “I am truly honoured to have been recognized with the Chief Officer’s and Deputy Governor’s monthly awards. It is my passion to ensure that the Family Support Unit serves the public with tact and diplomacy. I believe that embracing the benefits of a multi-agency approach would surely provide a better quality of life for the people we serve.”
The Employee of the Month is chosen from staff members who have been recognised by their organisation’s Chief Officers as the best service providers in any month. From among those awardees at the end of the current fiscal year, the Deputy Governor will choose a final winner to be the Employee of the Year for 2014.
CIG to move financial year
(CNS): The government has made the decision to move its fiscal year, which currently runs from 1 July through to 30 June, to match the calendar year. Announced by Finance Minister Marco Archer when he delivered the PPM government’s future fiscal plans and related policies, the change will begin on 1 January 2016. Simultaneously, government will be introducing multi-year budgeting, which will see an 18 month budget delivered at the end of this fiscal year followed by a two year budget on 1 January 2016. Despite the complexities and expense of changing the fiscal year, Archer said it would bring numerous benefits.
Delivering the Strategic Policy Statement (SPS) in the Legislative Assembly on Thursday morning, the finance minister said the beginning of 2016 was earliest possible opportunity to make the fiscal year change but it would bring several advantages.
Government collects the bulk of its revenue from the financial services sector between January and March, he noted, so government will start its year when money is coming in but it will know early on in the fiscal year if there is a fall-off in revenue, giving government more time to take action. Archer explained that currently, with the fiscal year beginning on 1 July, it is nine months into the year before it is known that there may be a problem in the area where it collects most of its earnings.
The minister pointed out that the transition would avoid the current problem of producing two sets of statistics for both the calendar year and the fiscal year, facilitating clearer public information on government finances and the economy.
Archer said that the changes would be reviewed frequently and systematically but the longer budgets will see government take a more medium term view of public finances, which he said was superior to the start-stop of the current single year budgets.
The minister announced the formation of a new committee to undertake a comprehensive review of the Public Management and Finance Law led by government back-bencher and chair of the Public Accounts Committee, Roy McTaggart. As well as focusing on core government, the PMFL review will also examine statutory authorities and government companies, he said.
The PMFL will need to be changed to switch the financial year, which will also see the issue of the local election cycle resolved. Although it would have been cheaper to change the election date, the political issue of an administration gaining or losing six months appears to have been insurmountable, leading to what will be a much greater undertaking on the part of government to change the fiscal year.
Check back to CNS for more on the SPS and the LA motion for debate on it moved by the premier.
Public urged to comment on ToRs for cruise port EIA
CNS): Government officials in the Department of Environment say the public has until Friday 6 December to submit their thoughts, comments and concerns on the terms of reference (ToRs) that will guide any independent agency which will be contracted to undertake the Environmental Impact Assessment for the planned George Town Cruise berthing facilities. The EIA is a critical part of the process, as the strategic business case for the proposed project revealed a catalogue of potential environmental problems with the port. It is the EIA that will inform the government about whether or not the risks to critical environmental resources is worth what ever economic benefits the development of a cruise port would bring.
The government has stated on numerous occasions that if the risks are too great, especially to the jewel in Cayman’s crown – Seven Mile Beach, it would not go ahead with the project. As a result, the DoE is keen to ensure that the terms of reference cover the entirety of the potential impact of the project on Grand Cayman and that nothing is omitted.
DoE Director Gina Ebanks-Petrie said she wanted the public to feel that all of their concerns would be examined during the EIA and to ensure that those concerns, if they were not already covered in the draft document, were included.
While a public meeting on Wednesday night gave people a chance to hear the presentation from the authors of the draft ToRs, Mott MacDonald Limited (MML), anyone who missed the meeting can still submit their comments and concerns over the next two weeks.
At the end of this consultation and discussion period, which has included stakeholder meetings, the ToRs will be reviewed and redrafted to include anything that could have been overlooked, the DoE director explained. Based on the public consultation, the redrafted ToRS will be drawn up in collaboration with the government’s Environmental Advisory Board, which includes representatives from departments of Environment, Planning, Tourism, the Port Authority, the National Museum and the National Roads Authority.
The final terms of reference will then be submitted to government, which will begin the competitive process to find an independent agency to conduct the assessment based on these terms, which is why they are so important and need to be comprehensive. The draft ToRs, which the public can now examine, are based on the findings of the strategic business case that was undertaken by local consultants, PricewaterhouseCoopers, who had commissioned MML.
Despite government’s enthusiasm for a cruise berthing facility, there are very real concerns that the environmental risk may well outweigh the anticipated benefit to cruise tourism, which is still only a part of the local tourism product and one that many still believe has a detrimental impact on overseas tourism.
The Department of Tourism has worked exceptionally hard over the last few years to successfully attract record breaking overnight visitor numbers, but there are concerns that a surge in cruise ship visitors in George Town may undermine the success of stay-over tourism, which has a much wider economic benefit and a far lower environmental impact.
Nevertheless, the PPM government campaigned during the May 2013 on a commitment to developing two piers in George Town, with only limited upland development and supported by the cruise lines. The government has also committed to follow an open and transparent procurement process via competitive tendering which meets international best practice.
The EIA comes ahead of the request for proposals, which will go out to potential developers and cruise-lines partners as the project will be determined by the environmental findings.
If the risks are too great the project may be halted. However, if the EIA finds that the environmental risks can be mitigated, then whoever wins the bid project will be expected to follow those findings to address the potential risks identified.
Ritz gets government safety check with OSH course
(CNS): Government officials delivered a two day workshop at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel this week for managers and supervisors on occupational safety and health (OSH) in the workplace. Delivered by the Department of Labour and Pensions, the workshop reviews management of safety and health in the workplace environment, worksite analysis, construction safety, hazard prevention and control, as well as employee safety and health training. Presenter, Gene Hydes, Senior Labour Officer for the DLP said the course focused on the identification and prevention of hazards in the workplace.
Hydes is a member of the International Association of Safety Professionals, an associate member of the Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), and one of the few safety auditors and accident investigation technicians in the Cayman Islands. “The Ritz Carlton recognised the benefits of this initiative and got on board very quickly,” said Hydes.
The DLP has been offering OSH workshops as an early step towards a nation-wide training and certification programme. Its intention is to reduce work related injuries, improve productivity, engage management’s commitment to safety, as well as promote training and employee involvement in hazard prevention and control.
General Manager of the Ritz Carlton, Marc Langevin added, “The amenities and luxuries of our hotel don’t exist unless we have a strong foundation of safety for our guests and employees. This workshop has reinforced that position at every level of our organization.”
For more information on the OSH training contact Gene Hydes at 244-4008 or email gene.hydes@gov.ky.
Invasive iguanas spread to Cayman Brac
(CNS): People on Cayman Brac are being asked to report all sightings of the invasive green iguanas to the Department of Environment (DoE) as soon as they spot the pesky reptile and to try and keep track of their whereabouts until an official arrives. Last weekend, a member of the public saw a hatchling in the Spot Bay area, near the path to Long Bay, and all sightings like these must be reported as the iguanas can spread very quickly. They pose a threat to the indigenous population of rock iguanas and lizards, as well as other wildlife. The green iguana is now prolific on Grand Cayman and the DoE is hoping to prevent the same problem on the Brac.
“Green iguanas are very invasive and pose a serious threat to the island’s wildlife because of their size, feeding habits, and high reproduction rates," said DoE Research Officer, Jessica Harvey. "It is therefore extremely important to stop the growth of the green iguana population in Cayman Brac.”
When a sighting occurs, Brac residents are advised to contact the local DoE officers, Erbin Tibbetts or Robert Walton immediately. Call 926-0136 or 926-2342 or email erbin.tibbits@gov.ky or robert.walton@gov.ky. Where possible, the person reporting the sighting should try to keep sight of the iguana until a DoE officer arrives. If both DoE officers are unavailable, people are instead asked to contact Bonnie Scott Edwards on the Iguana Hotline at 917-7744. (Right: green iguana hatchling)
Anyone who spots a green iguana is also asked to record the description of the location and time of the sighting, the iguana’s approximate size, and whether or not it has a bead tag on its neck.
The DoE said that green iguanas should not to be confused with green anoles, or rock iguanas. Anoles are bright green and significantly smaller than iguanas, with a long, narrow snout. Also, they do not have spines on their crest, or a large, single-cheek scale.
Rock iguanas vary in colour between grey and brown and have different types of shading. They have black feet and smaller, more evenly spaced spines along their crest than the green iguana. They also do not have a single-cheek scale.
Green iguanas are easy to identify by the heavy black banding on their tails, as well as their large, single-cheek scale, and long, straggly crest spines.
Anyone who is uncertain as to what species he or she has spotted should send a photo via phone to bracbooks@gmail.com or Jessica.Harvey@gov.ky.
For more information, please contact the DoE at doe@gov.ky or call 949-8469.
Bank robbery case stalls
(CNS): The trial of three men and the sentencing of a fourth over their alleged part in a conspiracy to rob a branch of Scotia Bank in George Town last May has stalled as a result of a number of significant problems relating to the disclosure of documents to the defendants and other legal issues. Although the crown laid out its broad case against James McLean, Christopher Myles and Kevin Bowen on Wednesday, the case was quickly stalled due to some major issues that threaten the crown’s case against the men. The trial was adjourned until Friday, when lawyers will be making various legal arguments before Justice Alex Henderson, who is presiding over the case without a jury.
The three men are accused of conspiracy in connection with the daylight bank heist, in which masked robbers made off with an undisclosed sum, but they are not accused of robbery or possession of imitation firearms.
The hold-up happened at the bank located in Cardinal Avenue in downtown George Town on a busy cruise ship day. The masked men, two of whom were armed with what appeared to be guns, entered the bank at around 11:45am on 3 May 2012. The robbers threatened staff and customers before making off with an amount of cash that has never been disclosed.
Director of Public Prosecutions Cheryl Richards, QC, told the court that David Parchment, the fourth man who has pleaded guilty to accessory charges in relation to the case, is the crown’s key witness and his testimony forms the basis of the case against the other three men, but there is no other corroborating evidence.
Richards said the case hangs entirely on Parchment’s account. The co-conspirator alleges that the three other defendants offered him money to borrow his car for a job. Parchment claims that he agreed but he never knew what that job was until he saw the picture of his car in the local media outside the bank.
Parchment’s car was caught on film by a cruise ship tourist, who handed the picture to the local police. It also showed one of the masked robbers getting into the getaway car as the men fled the bank with the money, which does not appear to have been recovered. Although the robbers appeared to have changed the licence plates during the commission of the crime, they overlooked the road fee sticker, which displayed the car's correct license plate, tracing it to Parchment.
Although he had at first told police his car had been stolen, during an interview a few months later he was said to have told the police that McLean, Myles and Bowen had paid him $1,600 after the robbery for the use of his car. Despite being promised $4,000, Parchment claimed he was given a lower cut as the men said they did not get as much as they had hoped but they reassured him that they had wiped the car clean.
Having pleaded guilty and expected to give evidence for the crown against the other three, Parchment’s sentencing hearing was postponed until Monday as the court heard that it is common practice to wait until a defendant who becomes a prosecuting witness completes his evidence before sentence is passed for his part in the offence.
HRC: Life sentences must end
(CNS): The Human Rights Commission has warned that government needs to tackle the issue of mandatory life sentences for murder without the chance of parole before it is challenged in court and it is forced to adopt an inappropriate model for Cayman. In a new report the HRC makes it clear that the concept of whole life sentences with no chance of release runs contrary to Cayman’s own Bill of Rights as well as the European Convention. However, government has appeared reluctant to tackle the issue, which the HRC and its predecessor, the Human Rights Committee, warned would need to be addressed once Cayman adopted a bill of rights and as a result of findings by the European Court of Human Rights.
The publication of the HRC report, entitled "Whole-Life Sentences — The Impact of Human Rights and the Need for a New Model", comes in the wake of a petition filed in the Grand Court last month challenging a life sentence handed down to 22-year-old Tareek Ricketts, who was recently convicted of the murder of Jackson Rainford in a fatal shooting, which the crown had painted as a jealousy killing.
Ricketts, like all of those convicted in a Cayman court of murdering another person, regardless of the circumstances or number of people killed, was given a mandatory life sentence with no chance of parole. Unless Ricketts can mount a successful appeal against his conviction, as the law currently stands, his only chance of ever leaving prison alive is in the hands of the governor.
However, the concept of the mandatory life sentence falls foul of section 3 of the Cayman Islands 2009 Constitution’s Bill of Rights, which is now in force, and section 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which deals with an individual’s right not to be subjected to torture, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment.
The HRC said that when a defendant’s continued imprisonment could no longer be justified under any legitimate penal rationales, there is a violation of an individual’s right and has warned that government needs to change the law to introduce a tariff system that will allow a judge to determine the minimum time a convicted killer serves behind bars before he will be released.
Although this does not signal a date of release, it gives a prisoner the chance to go before a board and allow them to review the circumstances of the case after the prescribed tariff. When there is still a danger to the community or other reasons for keeping the prisoner behind bars, then the sentence can continue but there is a constant goal for an inmate to work towards a possible release date and a motivation for rehabilitation.
The report notes that on the surface ‘life without parole’ as a sentence for murder seems to be a logical punishment, but the HRC points to evidence to doubt the efficacy of using such principles of distributive punishment.
“The HRC is concerned that a lack of willingness by the legislature to grapple with this serious and sensitive issue will lead to the Cayman Islands being forced to adopt a system from another jurisdiction,” the report warns, which it said would undermine the chance to tailor a tariff and parole system to Cayman’s unique circumstances.
“The HRC has reached out to the past and current government in an effort to bring attention to the fact that the Cayman Islands is at a point in time whereby, although limited, a window of opportunity is still available to find an appropriate balance and construct a human-rights-compliant life sentence tariff system that protects the rights and freedoms of the community while protecting the inherent dignity of the individual in accordance with the BoR,” the report notes.
CNS has contacted the premier’s office and government officials in the Home Affairs Ministry to find out where government is with the issue but has not yet received a response.
Removing the mandatory whole life sentence is unlikely to draw wide support from the community, and is in fact more than likely to draw condemnation, which makes it a sticky issue for politicians who depend on the voting populace for their jobs. In addition, with several members of legislature still lamenting the removal of the death penalty, the tariff issue is not one that government will find easy to steer through the legislative process.
However, if the courts find in Ricketts’ favour, that the mandatory sentence he faces is incompatible with the Bill of Rights, which many local experts believe is extremely likely, the issue of resolution will be placed in the hands of lawmakers to remedy. The HRC also notes that all 19 of Cayman’s ‘lifers’, one of whom is serving a life sentence for multiple rapes but not murder, are entitled to challenge the whole life sentence in the courts
In addition, while the benefits of introducing tariffs may not be immediately apparent to the wider populace, there are many sensible, as well as human and moral reasons for introducing them.
The current sentence gives no room for the opportunity or incentive for redemption or rehabilitation, nor does it offer the courts any flexibility, when it is obvious that not all murder cases are the same.
“Perhaps the strongest objection to mandatory whole-life sentencing is that it is ablunt sentencing tool, which applies the same sentence to all offenders who have committed the same crime without due regard to the principle of proportionality,” the report from the HRC notes.
It also reminds legislators and the community that Cayman, as a party to the European Convention on Human Rights and a country with a Bill of Rights built on that convention, can ill-afford to ignore the reality that whole life sentencing is, by all indications, violating people's fundamental human rights. With what it describes as an “increasing overlap between punishment and human rights concerns”, the HRC states that Cayman must progressively reform the existing life sentence with the support of evidence-led policies and legislation that facilitate human rights compliance, as it is currently in conflict.
The commission states that tariffs empower judges to proportionately respond to the circumstances of each particular murder conviction when handing down a sentence. The concept of a minimum term allows a sentencing judge to consider the broad circumstances of the particular murder and recognises that not all murders are the same.
In addition, a tariff system would allow some leniency for those that admit their guilt and avoid the need for trial. At present, no one charged with murder ever pleads guilty because there is absolutely nothing to be gained in doing so and everything to be lost.
It would also give the prison authorities a carrot and a stick to encourage inmates serving life to do their time without further trouble. A recent example that the authorities face is the sixth escape of Steve Manderson. Without any chance of ever being released there is no incentive for Manderson to give up his jail breaks. Since the normal punishment of adding time to a sentence is impossible for a lifer, there is little that the authorities can do to manage such prisoners other than keep them in high security conditions at all times.
The issue will be a challenge for government regardless. Changing the law will not be popular with voters but not changing the law could lead to costly law suits before the UK is likely to impose a tariff system without any input from local legislators. The HRC points out that sooner or later this issue must be addressed.