Nicholson
Robert Hart, Parliamentary Reporter
LEGISLATION AIMED at strengthening the operations of the coroner's court was yesterday passed in the Senate, to give interested parties the right to cross-examine witnesses and to seek to quash inquisitions or verdicts.
Currently, that authority rests solely in the hands of the director of public prosecutions, who has repeatedly come under fire for his handling of cases in the court.
"We are of the view that any person with a sufficient interest should be able to apply to the court to review an inquest and quash a verdict or finding for any of the reasons now enumerated (in the Coroner's Act)," said Senator A.J. Nicholson, minister of justice and attorney-general. Mr. Nicholson piloted the bill which was passed with Opposition support.
The justice minister said jurors will now be selected randomly from a list kept by the clerk of courts under the Jury Act.
At present, jurors participating in the coroner's court are selected from outside the jury pool by the police. The jury list, which is essentially the voters' list for each parish excluding those who are exempt from service or disqualified, is revised every four years by the resident magistrate and justices of the peace.
"The law now provides for the coroner to summon 'not less than five nor more than 30 good and lawful persons' to appear before him to serve as jurors, but does not say how they are to be selected," Mr. Nicholson explained.
JUROR CONCERNS
He added: "In most parishes, the coroner's court sits one day per month so there is no reason to have the same jurors sitting every month."
Though the legislation was already on its way to Parliament, the juror concern was given new legs just a month ago when Dr. Carolyn Gomes, executive director of human rights lobby group, Jamaicans for Justice, said the government was aware of the issue, but had yet to correct the problem.
Dr. Gomes pointed to what she said was an abundance of 'professional jurors' who participate in the coroner's court. The jurors, she claimed, were persons who are regularly recycled by police officers responsible for serving summonses for jury service.
Noting that jury payment of $500 per day is above the minimum wage, she suggested that such jurors could be influenced to support the security forces' version of events as they seek to ensure their own continued selection to service.
