Mandatory minimum 15-year sentence for firearm offences could cause case backlog, says attorney

By Kimone Witter    

 

Attorney-at-law Peter Champagnie, KC, says the mandatory minimum 15-year sentence for firearm offences could result in a backlog of cases in the criminal courts.

 

Mr. Champagnie says the Firearms (Prohibition, Restriction and Regulation) Act, 2022 should be reviewed to prevent this from happening.

 

But, the senior attorney, who was speaking on TVJ's Smile Jamaica on Tuesday, did not put forward a recommendation for the starting point for these offences. 

 

"With the new legislation that is in existence now, the Firearms Act...you have a situation where it doesn't make any sense for persons to plead guilty, because whether you plead guilty or not, you're going to get 15 years. So you find that a person would rather take his chances at trial, and because of that, you're going to have increased numbers in terms of that," he explained, as he called for a review of the legislation to prevent a backlog of cases. 

 

People convicted for possession, trade in firearms and ammunition can face penalties ranging from 15 years to life imprisonment.

 

 

In the meantime, Mr. Champagnie has also argued that too much focus is being placed on the symptoms of sexual offences and not the underlying causes.

 

The attorney said in relation to abuse of children, parents and guardians should face prosecution.

 

He was reacting to recent comments by Senior Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions, Jeremy Taylor KC, who said policymakers have not done all they can to tackle the rising number of sexual offence cases.

 

Mr. Taylor said sexual offences have become cultural, adding that hardly any legislative changes are being made to remedy the issues.

 

However, Mr. Champagnie does not share the view that there is need for greater focus in this area of the law. 

 

"The simple reason... is that we have a fairly new Sexual Offences Act. I think it was passed in 2009. We have the Child Diversion Act, which I think was passed in 2018. We have the Sexual Harassment Act, which was passed very recently. And these legislation combined provide a raft of measures in terms of penalties and, in fact, create new offences," he said, suggesting that this might be the reason for the increase in the number of cases.

 

Mr. Champagnie said there are laws available to hold parents and guardians to account for the neglect of their children. 

 

"With every right comes responsibility. And that is why, for instance, I would want to even go in the way of enacting or re-enacting truancy laws. You can't be wandering about, not in school and all of those things. And this is where you have the breeding ground in terms of sexual offences being committed, sexual grooming, trafficking in persons. You see from time to time youngsters missing, there's no account for their whereabouts and all of that. So I think we need to focus on dealing with the investigative aspect of it and bringing persons to book. Jamaica is not short of legislation," the attorney argued.