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Attorneys Leonard Green and John Clarke
By Warren Bertram
Attorney and President of the Advocates' Association of Jamaica Leonard Green says the Privy Council ruling on the Tafari Morrison case is not reinforcement for the government's decision to impose mandatory minimum sentences for gun-related offences as a means to curb crime.
Mr. Green sought to explain that the unique circumstances of Morrison's crime provided justification for the initial sentence imposed on Morrison and the subsequent Privy Council ruling.
The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council on Thursday rejected the appeal of convicted teenager Tafari Morrison, who had challenged the constitutionality of his 15-year mandatory minimum sentence for gun-related offences.
Morrison was sentenced in 2013 for a crime in which the victim was robbed of his cellphone and shot multiple times.
Following Thursday's Privy Council ruling, Justice Minister Delroy Chuck said the decision is a vindication of the government's move to impose tougher sanctions for gun crimes.
But Mr. Green does not believe the Privy Council decision is a vindication for the government but is based solely on the "particularly unique facts" of the Morrison case.
"In the case, after the victim was shot twice in the back, the men picked up spent shells from the ground, and you'll recall the judges making mention of the fact that this constituted forensic awareness. In other words, this was not child-like action," the attorney suggested.
Furthermore, Mr. Green argued that while Morrison would have been classified as a child under the law, he was at the eldest age of the range defined under the Offences Against the Person Act, which says a child is between age 12 and 16.
Attorney John Clarke said the "bad precedent" set by the Privy Council ruling will impact future cases involving child offenders.
Mr. Clarke explained that while the conditions of the Tafari Morrison case support the decision of the Privy Council, children who find themselves before the courts on similar charges may have difficulty getting a lower sentence.
"Another child who may very well perhaps deserve 'justice' may have a harder hurdle to climb because the precedent set by this case cannot be something that any of the lawyers can disagree with. This case will tie the hands of the judges," he bemoaned.
Mr. Clarke and Mr. Green were both speaking Thursday on Radio Jamaica's Beyond the Headlines.
The lawyers representing Tafari Morrison had appealed that the imposition of the 15-year minimum sentence for the firearm offence was prohibited by the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms and was therefore unlawful.
But the Appeal Court upheld the sentence following an appeal by his attorneys who then took the matter to the UK-based Privy Council.
The Privy Council also ruled that the minimum mandatory sentence was not unconstitutional, and did not infringe the Charter of Rights.
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