The Advocates Association of Jamaica, in responding to the recent public debate on sentencing, has emphasised that sentencing is one of the most difficult aspects of the judicial function.

"We wish to encourage the continuing interest in legal matters as this engenders an invaluable public awareness, but we also recommend that, in our anxiety to ensure a fair justice system we ourselves do not commit the error of rushing to judgment but that we first gather all the facts," the association said.

The association, at a meeting last Saturday, took note of the public interest and continuing public debate on legal matters which the association regarded as healthy and highly desirable.

Attorney-at-law George Soutar, president of the association, said the group emphasised the need for "the debate and the discussions to proceed on an informed basis as otherwise it will be counter productive and important principles of law and justice will be compromised and sacrificed because of the misunderstandings as to how the law has been applied in a particular case."

He said the association was not opposed to the amendment to the Constitution to raise the retirement age of judges from 70 to 72 but it was the body's view that any amendment to the Constitution should await the recommendations of the Justice Reform Task Force.

Commenting further on sentencing, Mr. Soutar said the association wished to introduce into public debate specific facts and principles that were always relevant to sentencing.

Similar sentences

"In imposing a sentence a court strives to impose similar sentences for similar offences committed in similar circumstances. Where for example the circumstances are different, the judge is by law required to reflect this in the sentence imposed," he said.

"This principle has always been accepted by society and is reflected in the fact that, for the most if not all offences, the law gives the judge a range on possible sentences from which to choose."

Mr. Soutar said further that the judge must take into account not only the crime committed but also the circumstances in which it occurred and the circumstances of the offender. He said it was in the interest of society that in sentencing the offender the court "bears in mind not only the punishment but also how the sentence will affect the offender's chance of rehabilitation".

Mr. Soutar added: "We reiterate that sentencing is one of the most difficult aspects of the judicial function as the judge must carefully weigh in the balance a variety of relevant factors and ultimately decide where the best interest of all interested parties and society as a whole overlap. This will not always be in keeping with what one party wishes or what an interested onlooker without all of the facts may think is right."