DPP says some defendants abusing lawyers’ help

Some accused people are abusing the help that lawyers provide to the court by not hiring a lawyer even when they can afford to do so.

Director of Public Prosecution, Sejilla McDowall told the High Court that defendants are putting themselves at a disadvantage by refusing to hire a lawyer.

St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) has a very limited legal aid system in which the court provides a lawyer only to murder accused who cannot afford counsel, or to cross-examine alleged rape victims when the accused is unrepresented.

McDowall said she was concerned that some people think that prosecutors only hope that people are convicted.

“But we are looking at the overall justice of the case,” she said at the special sitting of the court to mark the end of the January assizes.

Justice Rickie Burnett presided over the sitting.

McDowall said all prosecutors feel “uncomfortable” when defendants do not have a lawyer.

“They come into the box. In the first place, they don’t know anything about the trial process. They may have gone through a bit of it before, but they did it without understanding. And they sit there without documents. They sit there sometimes without making notes. And when they do have documents, some of them can’t read well,” she said.

The chief prosecutor said this was a fixable issue, adding that the President of the SVG Bar Association, Shirlan “Zita” Barnwell was working to provide “a lot more support.

“But it really is incumbent upon defendants as well to take initiative,” the DPP siad.

“It’s not that all of the defendants are impecunious, but some of them are truly abusing the system and abusing the legal aid that is offered by defence counsel.”

McDowall said a balance must be struck “because we are all here as guardians of the criminal justice process.

“And I do hope that we can explore more solutions towards achieving a system that works a lot better because the aim is not to win at any cost, whether it’s from the prosecution or defence side, but to ensure that the cases are presented justly.”

McDowall also raised the issue of mental health, a recurring theme during the closing of the assizes, noting that Barnwell had spoken to the issue.

The DPP said her staff interact closely with witnesses and their families, adding, “We are emotionally weighed down, but we don’t wear that when we come into the courtroom, because we have business to do.”

She said as witnesses go through their traumatic ordeals, “we experience our own vicarious trauma by being with them.

“And if this is our experience, no doubt it is the experience of defence counsel, the experience of the courts, of the jurors who, I imagine, feel crushed by decisions that are made and are emotionally affected by what they hear and observe as cases are handled,” she said, adding that sometimes, cases never end for proseuctors.

“They’re always reflections on matters that it sounds so incredible, but they are true, and it did not happen to us directly, but almost as if they did. So there is need for ongoing support when it comes to mental health, not only looking at witnesses.”

She said the DPP’s office was providing that support but has to do so for all of the support staff in the criminal justice system and make it a matter of priority.

“And for defendants with mental health, the Office of the DPP has been a lot more involved in pushing that agenda to make sure that persons are not just sitting there waiting for forensic report and evaluation. But even so, on the health aspect, we cannot provide that level of support.”

McDowall said there is a need for “forensics which is relating to the court reports and there’s need for assessment in relation to the health care aspect”, adding that these two things are always obligations for the prisons.

“But when it comes to how it affects criminal matters, I know that there are persons who are committed at the court’s pleasure for years upon years, and it’s not that they are forgotten, but there is a need for there to be an appreciation of what really is at work. These matters are under judicial supervision of not just the High Court, but other courts.”

She said her office can keep track of these matters internally and through the courts.

“The challenges prevail, and defendants cannot be facing discrimination just because they have a mental health issue, and so we have to deal with this stigmatisation. And when I say we, it goes beyond the courtroom for us to tackle this issue of the stigma related to mental health.”

She said there was “a lot of misinformation about how to manage the risk of future violence, but all of these can be mitigated by several measures”.

McDowall said the legal system has been “evolving and hopefully maturing so that we can better balance the chronic issues, and we can take action accordingly.

“We have to, in the way of balance, look at the constitutional rights of defendants with mental health problems, just as if they had hypertension or cancer or some other congenital disease of sorts.

“We have to balance those rights against the public interest when it comes to national security and hope that at the end of it, that would achieve the ends of justice and things. So I do hope that that conversation will continue, and it would be pursued maturely.”