Getting away with murder

So we have seen the tip of the iceberg and all of the inflammatory adjectives are being released. My colleague and friend, newly admitted member of the quinquagenarian club, Gary Spaulding, reprised an observation I made several times over the past decade: "People being murdered, and their murderers getting away with their crimes." He was reporting on the secondary analysis of another colleague from the UWI, my main hunting ground, Professor Anthony Clayton, who painted a pretty gloomy picture.

Around 1,060 murders have been committed this year up to last week and just under 30 per cent of them have been 'cleared up'. The figure might appear low, but the idea that one out of every three murders in this country results in police identifying a suspect or perpetrator does tell us that the criminal has almost a one-in-three chance of being caught.

data

Between 2004 and last year, just under 40 per cent of homicides were cleared up and, of that figure, only about an eighth of the accused managed to make it to trial. When crunched further, the data show that, in real terms, a mere five per cent of persons accused of murder get convicted.

Let us, however, get behind the statistics. The numbers actually can even be lower. It must be noted that the clear-up rate includes those where persons have been pinpointed and arrested for the crime, but did not do it. For all the respect I have for the work of the homicide investigators in this country, they are not perfect, and do get the wrong person sometimes.

True, even the most notorious criminal, when found with blood on his clothes, gunpowder residue on his hands and his fingerprints decorating the crime scene, will say he is innocent and was at 'rerk' when the murder was committed. However, as in the case of the accused siblings in the Irwin rape case, on occasions, without the coaching and teacher assisting with their school-based assessments, the accused pass the DNA test.

Then, there is that minute percentage of persons who were maliciously prosecuted by rogue cops. And since we are talking about officer criminal, let us also add to these numbers the policemen charged for murder, too, or those who are so skilful that they avoid the scrutiny of their colleagues until INDECOM arrests them.

Still, for the statistics to be really meaningful, we ought not to be isolating murder from the other crimes where the potential for homicide was real. If, for example, a person stands beside another and hits him with a lethal back fist, it is murder if there was malice.

Oftentimes, what we call a 'coward stab' has a fatal effect. However, if another peppers his victim with all the bullets from a .38 revolver and he survives, it is merely shooting with intent and not murder, although the intention to kill was more obvious. In simple Jamaican Patwa, in many cases, the charge is not murder, because the 'shatta dem hand lean'. Thus, we are really deluding ourselves if we focus solely on the fatalities, given that the intention of the criminal is exactly the same.

The fact is, we are a violent society. The number of child abuse cases reported, the number of civilians killed by the police, and the number of police personnel murdered by criminals are all too high. So we must seek to reduce our propensity towards violence, period.

In my view, there are two elements in the approach. First, there must be the message of the certainty of apprehension and punishment. Simply put, the police must have the capability to detect, pursue and arrest the culprits and bring them to justice where they will face a jury of their peers, which examines evidence that is as tight as the fat politician's underwear, and the jurors deliver honest verdicts. This is part of the thrust of the Singapore government, which our commissioner uses from time to time in illustrating the path we can take.

convictions unlikely

Getting a conviction for murder is a very difficult prospect, and by the time it gets to the jury, the case is already on its back feet. There have been stunning developments in cases despite the hard work of murder investigators who laboured day and night digging up evidence and cuffing suspects before they could say, 'Dawdy'.

But when witnesses who were previously available and who gave tangible evidence and addresses suddenly disappear like money in a crackhead's hand, what can be done? And when, despite the preponderance of DNA evidence, a man is inexplicably found not guilty by a jury of his peers, what do you do? And how can someone who mercilessly stabbed his woman 30 times be acquitted?

The awful truth is that jury trials are about court craft and practical court psychology and mind games. It is less about law. Thus, many of the murderers escape justice because they have skilful, experienced and morally bankrupt lawyers, who, after being told by their client that he did it, go to court and lie about his innocence, instead of doing what the tenets of their profession say: launch a negative defence. And the criminals know this.

The second is that there must be processes in place to lessen the number of criminals or would-be criminals. The reduction of violence in society is a societal problem, not simply the task for the police, as critical as they are in the process. Close to 80 per cent of the murders are the result of gang activity. Thus, it seems to be a reasonable prospect that we target gangs as an integral part of the strategy.

Anti-gang legislation has been touted and quoted with reference to international examples. Yet, while the police must have the means to tackle the cancer of gangs and organised crime, it makes sense that we attempt to reduce the supply of young men who are likely to cross the 'at-risk' line into full criminality. This requires a process of educational reform, creation of new opportunities after secondary school, reduction of youth unemployment, and are successful black men who care enough to engage.

Still, there are other variables. An often-overlooked factor in the Singapore model is the zero tolerance to corruption. Jamaica's Corruption Perception Index (CPI) is 3.8 and has been as low as 3.0 out of 10. More than 80 per cent of Jamaicans believe that our political parties and police are dishonest.

Strange as it may sound, there is international research that shows strong correlation between the level of social trust in societies and the level of corruption, both perceived and measured. Furthermore, there is convincing evidence that in countries with high levels of confidence in the moral rectitude of their leaders, and low CPIs, the rate of violent crime is markedly low. Follow the logic: If you have dishonest leaders and lack of transparency in government, the domino effect is scary, and this leaves the youth holding 'hard end', as they can only pose double six while standing on corners.

rebuilding trust

When people have reason to trust their leaders, the trust in the police follows, and after that, the level of cooperation will also join the train. There is no doubt that what drives up crime-detection rates is the degree of cooperation the cops get from the trusting public.

The national anthem is not a joke. Justice and truth are strongly associated, and justice and peace are as intricately and intimately intertwined as ackee and salt fish. Countries with high labour standards and good treatment of workers also tend to have low social violence rates.

Since its inception in 1918 and later when it was incorporated into the UN in 1944, the International Labour Organisation gave to the world the concept of human rights and demonstrated how justice, fairness and peace are interrelated. This is a fact I have been pointing out since the late 1990s when the ugly head of the crime leviathan was rearing again.

Thus, while it is true that Minister Bunting and Commissioner Ellington must reassess their objectives and strategies, what we need is simply more honesty from all our leaders. Bring all hands on deck.

Dr Orville Taylor is senior lecturer in sociology at the UWI and a radio talk-show host. Email feedback to columns@ gleanerjm.com and tayloronblackline@hotmail.com.