Jail without bail if caught with illegal guns.

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Bill passed: Illegal firearms accused face 120 days in prison
By Anna Ramdass (Express).

Jail without bail.

There will be no bail for up to 120 days if a person over the age of 18 is caught with an illegal gun or accused of using a gun in the commission of a crime.

The Bail (Amendment) Bill 2015 was passed in the Senate yesterday with a majority although three Opposition Senators voted against it.

Independent Senators Elton Prescott SC, Helen Drayton and temporary Senator Dr Aysha Edwards who is acting for Independent Senator Ian Roach voted against the Bill.

The Bill, once proclaimed by the President, will become law as it was already passed in the House of Representatives on March 20, with 36 members, including the Opposition bench, voting in favour of it. The Bill required a special majority for passage and has a sunset clause—it expires August 2016.

At the Senate sitting yesterday, Attorney General Garvin Nicholas moved that the second reading of the Bail (Amendment) Bill, 2015 be taken and he kicked off the debate in the Upper House.

Both Opposition and the Independent benches raised concerns over the Bill but in the end the Opposition members all voted in favour. There were 27 votes in support of the Bill.

The Bill states that a court shall not grant bail to:

(a) a person who is under the age of 18 years and charged with an offence under the Anti-Gang Act, 2011;

(b) on or after the commencement of the Bail (Amendment) Act, 2015, is charged with an offence (i) under section 6 of the Firearms Act, where the person has a pending charge for an offence specified in Part II of the First Schedule; or (ii) specified in Part II of the First Schedule, except an offence under section 6 of the Firearms Act, where the prosecution informs the court that the person or any other person involved in the commission of the offence used or had in his possession a firearm or imitation firearm during the commission of the offence.

The person can apply for bail after 120 days if the prosecution has not started a case.

In winding up the debate yesterday, Nicholas said the Bill was geared to solve the problem of gun crimes in this country.

He said at the end of the day the legislation is to solve one real issue—Trinidad and Tobago is overrun with guns, and although the Government’s policies have kept criminals at bay there was need to go further to ensure people with firearms do not continue to terrorise the innocent people of this country.

Nicholas accused the PNM of being pretensive in its care and concern for the people in its constituencies.

“The constituencies which the PNM considered to be safe seats, if you walk those areas, if you talk to those people they are the ones, Mr Vice President, who are seriously affected by gun crimes,” said Nicholas.

He said he walked these areas and the people themselves thanked him for bringing the Bail (Amendment) Bill to deal with guns.

Opposition Senator Camille Robinson Regis asked Nicholas, “When you walk there?”

He responded that he walked in the Diego Martin areas over the past couple weeks.

“That’s why you got beaten in the last election,” said Opposition Senator Fitzgerald Hinds.

“It is not about if I got beat in the election or not, the issue, Mr Vice President, is that I am here as the Attorney General today...to ensure that whatever I can do to protect the lives of citizens of Trinidad and Tobago I shall do,” said Nicholas.

He said he was startled that Opposition members could speak of confidence in judicial officers and apparent lack of confidence when it comes to the Police Service.

Nicholas said he has equal confidence in both the judiciary and law enforcement.

Who killed Dana?

“Who killed Dana Seetahal?” asked an Opposition member.

“We will find out who,” said Nicholas as he went on to say there are “gaps” in the forensic system but Government was already looking at a system to engage private forensic services to fast track matters.

Nicholas pointed out that Opposition Senator Avinash Singh made a case for the Bail Bill as he himself noted that over 75 per cent of murders committed in this country were by the use of firearms.

Temporary Government Senator Wayne Sturge said the Bill was not draconian, adding that there were safeguards in place to deal with persons who may claim they are “set up” by police.

He said there have been cases before where persons made legal challenges against the State for gun charges and were vindicated in the courts.

[Socapro]

We also need some news laws and initatives to stop the guns and drugs from coming into the country and to catch and jail those who are responsible for bringing in the drugs and the guns.

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Law Association calls for repeal of proposed legislation citing denial of constitutional rights
By Ria Taitt Political Editor

STOP NO BAIL LAW

Stating it “amounts to a denial of a person’s constitutional rights”, the Law Association of Trinidad and Tobago (LATT) is calling for the repeal of the Bail (Amendment) bill, 2015, which was passed in the Senate on Tuesday. “The Law Association of Trinidad and Tobago has advised the Honourable Attorney General that it does not agree with, nor support the Bail (Amendment) bill 2015 which was yesterday tabled in Parliament,” a release signed by vice-president Gerry Brooks stated.
Presi­dent-elect Reginald Armou­r is still to be sworn in.
“This legislation purports to restrict the granting of bail to an accused person by not permitting that person’s access to a court of law to hear an application for bail for as long a period as 120 days from the reading of the charge,” the release stated.
The association cautioned the bill may facilitate keeping people in jail for much longer than the 120 days stipulated in the legislatio­n.
“The present system is overburdened and it may take as many as three years for the prosecution to be ready to proceed with trial. The 120 days has no relation to the time it takes the State to get expert reports and be ready. In this regard, all that will be achieved is the pre-trial detention of civilians in violation of the presumption of innocence and the protective constitutional provisions,” the association warned.
It suggested the bill was too draconian. “This amounts to a denial of a person’s constitutional rights. Given the constitutional guarantees of reasonable bail, coupled with the presumption of innocence and the right to be brought promptly before an appropriate judicial authority, even in the face of firearms and firearms-related offences, LATT considers the proposed amendment a disproportionate response,” the association said.
It added: “It is the duty of the executive to ensure that the criminal justice system is modernised and outfitted to a reasonable standard to deal effectively and efficiently with the scourge of crime. The answer does not lie in chipping away incrementally at our constitutional rights and freedoms.
“LATT calls for the repeal of the legislation,” the release concluded.

AG moving quickly to enact bill

Speaking to the Express one hour before the Law Association issued its statement, Attorney Gene­ral Garvin Nicholas said he would be moving swiftly to have the Bail Amendment bill 2015 enacte­d. The bill merely requires the assent of the President.
Later attempts to contact the Attorney General for a response to the Law Association’s call were unsuccessful. But speaking in the Senate on Tuesday, the Attorney General said: “I have heard that these amendments allow for police officers to set up persons that they may wish to target for one reason or another. This has been an argument put forward by the Law Association in a letter I received just last night... This may well be true as there is no doubt in every police service around the world, bad apple­s, and unfortunately in Trinidad and Tobago there is no exception.
“The Government however has been working with the Commissioner of Police and has continued to take steps to create a more efficient Police Service.”
Nicholas also stated it was incumbent on the Commissioner of Police, the Police Complaints Authority and the Police Service Commission to do their part in ensuring the country had a corruption-free Police Service.
He added: “It may well be that in addition to the discretion already used by judges and magistrates, we may need to further prescribe harsher sanctions against all police officers who carry out their duties in a corrupt way.”
The Attorney General also stated another criticism of the legis­lation was that it would further burden the resources of the Remand Yard. “It is not an argument that I have resisted. More detainees obviously mean a greater burden on scarce resources. For this reason, I would suggest to the Minister of Justice and the Honourable Chief Justice that a special gun court be considered to expedite these offences,” he said.

Facts about the bill

The Ball bill is the first bill to have been piloted by Nicholas since his appointment. It required a special majority because it infringed on certain entrenched rights. It was passed two weeks ago in the House of Representatives.
On Tuesday, it received the support of both Government and Opposition in the Senate, giving it more than the requisite number of votes to become law. In the Senate however, three Independent Senators—Elton Prescott, SC; Helen Drayton and temporary senator Dr Aysha Edwards—voted against the measure.
The Bail Act has been amendment many times over the past 20 years, as the crime situation has become more intractable.
The original Bail Act provided that a person charged for any offence other than murder, treason, piracy or hijacking, was eligible to be granted bail.
In 1994, the Parliament modified this to deny bail to people who had three previous convictions for certain specified offences.
In 2005, the Parliament reduced the number of convictions from three to two and added certain violent offences such as rape, manslaughter, shooting and robbery. The bill most importantly made kidnapping a crime for which a person could not get bail, even if it was the person’s first offence. At the time, the country had a problem of people kidnapping for ransom. The bill had a sunset clause which limited its duration to one year.
However the Parliament, between 2006 and 2010, kept the provisions of this legislation alive.
In 2011, the Parliament amended the Bail Act to include people charged with offences under the Anti-Gang Act. The bill allows a gang member or anyone involved in gang-related activity or the harbouring of gang members and other related crimes to be held for 120 days.
In 2014, the Parliament amendment the act further to add new offences for which people can be denied bail. These included sexual offences involving a child, perverting the course of justice, offences under the Larceny Act and the Malicious Damage Act punishable by a prison term of ten years or more.
The Bail bill of 2015 goes further. It restricts bail for certain offences involving the use or possession of a firearm. These offences include larceny, larceny of a motor vehicle, burglary and housebreaking, rape, drug possession, sex with a person under 14 years, receiving stolen goods, shooting, etc.
These most recent amendments to this bill expire on August 15, 2016.

‘Bill being reviewed’

President of the Assembly of Souther­n Lawyers Imran Khan yesterday said the association was reviewing the Bail (Amendment) bill, 2015, which was passed in Parliament on Tuesday.
Asked to comment on the passage of the bill in the Senate on Tuesday, he said: “I am not sure I am equipped to answer that right now because we have had a couple of members of the association looking at it and we are still waiting for a feedback, so I don’t want to say anything (at this time).”
Khan said the association is expected to release a statement today.

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No consideration to a private letter from the law association.

No specifics about how the system would have potential for abuse curbed.

This just like the past AG and his poorly drafted laws.


And speaking about poorly drafted....I believe the Administration of Justice Act...of which Section 34 was a part was supposed to have the necessary system additions and changes made to facilitate the effectiveness of that bill in 3 years. Any update on this? Or was it just for one purpose only?

[Brownsugar]

No consideration to a private letter from the law association.

No specifics about how the system would have potential for abuse curbed.

This just like the past AG and his poorly drafted laws.

So why the oppsition voted for it??

My guess is in this election year the PNM eh want to have to hear how dey not doing anything to support the reduction of crime??  I doh know.........perhaps I should go read the contributions in the house to get a better sense but this is exactly why should the PNM get back into power, and I can't see why they won't, I'll be right back here cussing in about 2 years or so......is just a setta firetruckery all around.....

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Obviously that was the reason and also there is a sunset clause so it may not be in effect now.

There are all sorts of things that could happen.
If a gun gets planted on somebody what then? All this talk about establishing a gun court and such is only an afterthought because if that was the actual plan then that should have been established first.  What metric would be used to evaluate this bill and it's success? Why not have a gun amnesty to get them off the street first?

Poorly planned out and simply done for politics.  I'm not sure how comfortable I am with this, especially knowing the woeful inefficiency of the existing system