Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter
DIRECTOR OF Public Prosecutions, (DPP) Kent Pantry, Q.C., has come in for sharp criticism from the Advocates' Association of Jamaica for the public statement he issued this week that a prosecutor in his office 'fouled up' the handling of the Janice Allen case.
The association, in expressing its support for Herbert McKenzie, assistant director of public prosecutions, said it was concerned that the DPP's approach could serve to undermine the "sense of autonomy" which prosecutors must have when they appear in court from time to time and have to make their own decisions. The association said it had information that the case was extremely weak, and described Mr. McKenzie as a prosecutor of the "highest integrity".
Reports reaching The Gleaner are that Mr. Pantry's statements have also angered some of the prosecutors in his office. "We are hopping mad," a senior prosecutor told The Gleaner. "The morale is very low."
"We had a very dead case," said the DPP source. "The office was only trying to salvage it."
Police Constable Rohan Allen who was charged with man-slaughter arising from the fatal shooting of 13-year-old Janice Allen in Trench Town, south St. Andrew, in April 2000, was freed in the Portland Circuit Court last month. He was freed after the prosecutor offered no evidence and the judge directed the jury to return a formal verdict of not guilty.
NO EVIDENCE
No evidence was offered after the prosecutor got information that the investigating officer through whom a statement from the accused policeman was to be tendered, was reported to have left the island. It later turned out that the policeman had returned to the island.
The DPP said in a statement on Wednesday said that he would have entered a nolle prosequi (no prosecution) with a condition that the matter would commence de novo (restart) on the return of the witness.
Yesterday's statement from the Advocates' Association, over the signature of its president, attorney-at-law George Soutar, said: "Our information is that at the time this matter was called up before Justice Lloyd Hibbert, himself a former senior deputy director of public prosecutions, the case for the prosecution was extremely weak and had been on the trial list for a considerable period of time and was going nowhere. Based on the information available to him, Mr. McKenzie had little choice but to agree to the course eventually undertaken by the court.
DID NOTHING WRONG
"In these circumstances, it is difficult for us to understand why Mr. McKenzie is now being made to shoulder blame where he did nothing wrong.
"We feel that this is a case where competent counsel is being made a scapegoat in the face of mounting public pressure from human rights groups and others."
The association argued that "this is unfortunate as Mr. McKenzie acted in a manner that is established by tradition and practice".
