BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Paulina Hendrickson has once again repeated the call for the implementation of a well structured witness protection programme, when she spoke at a ceremony in Nevis to mark the opening of the 2011/2012 law year of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (ECSC).
Hendrickson said that the implementation of a well structured witness protection programme is needed because it was the duty of the prosecution to protect long term stability and viability of the justice system and society.
The DPP made this call last year when she spoke at the opening of the 2010/2011 law year and said before Chief Justice Hugh Rawlins of the ECSC and other dignitaries and attorneys that citizens are becoming increasingly fearful in providing information to the police in criminal investigation.
“Witnesses are reluctant because of fear, especially in homicide cases,” she said. “During the last assizes we had the unfortunate situation where two trials had to be aborted because two witnesses recanted their stories while on the stand.”
“My lord, there are those willing to give evidence in serious matters but they are concerned for their safety and would need protection.
“The time has long passed for a witness protection programme. We cannot afford not to have a witness protection programme in place to protect the long term stability and viability of our justice programme and society,” she said.
Many persons are of the view that a properly structured witness protection programme should be implemented as it is rumoured that some of the murders the federation has experienced in the past five years, including this year were of those who witnessed crime.
One female said: “The authorities have indicated that there is some sort of witness protection programme and I am not disputing that. However, from what I heard there were persons who were to have provided evidence in specific cases and they were executed. That should have never happened!
More needs to be done to protect our people. So I endorse what the DPP is saying. She is right, this is a necessity! We need more structure to whatever this witness protection programme is.”
Another female said that she had an experience where a family member was in a ‘so-called’ witness protection programme and information about their location was leaked.
“The person went into the programme and everyone knew and people also knew about the information that was given to the police,” she said.
Also at this year’s ceremony the prosecutor said that gun related crimes remain at an all time high, and that citizens are even more fearful for their safety.
“This greatly affects the functioning of the office of the DPP, as presently we depend heavily on eye witness testimony to bring criminals to justice.”
During her address she said that a total of 69 cases were listed for trial of which 49 or 71% were disposed of by the court.
She said that in the Nevis circuit there were 10 cases while eight or 80 per cent were disposed of.
In terms of the new September Assizes she said that 20 cases were traversed from the May Assizes while a total of 14 new cases will join to make 34 cases listed for trial for the new assizes.
“Our goal for future assizes is to be able to dispose of at least 90 per cent of the listed cases, with not more than 10 per cent of the cases being traversed.
“The focus must be on efficiency, effectiveness, and fairness in the administration of justice,” Hendrickson said.
