... SENTENCES ARE DEEMED APPROPRIATE – CMS

IN DEFENDING the action of judges in western Jamaica who are being criticised for handing down light sentences in cases of illegal possession of firearms and ammunition, Court Management Service (CMS) revealed that the woman who was admonished and discharged by Justice David Fraser last January was an American tourist who pleaded guilty to possession of ammunition.

The police document reported that she was convicted for illegal possession of firearm and ammunition.

According to CMS, the woman was held at the airport at the end of her vacation with her mother and immediately informed authorities that the firearm magazine discovered belonged to her husband, who is a licensed firearm holder in the United States. NO WILFUL INTENT

“Despite her technical guilt, there was no evidence of a deliberate or wilful intention to breach our laws, and no one within the borders of Jamaica was placed at any risk by the inadvertent commission of the offence,” the agency noted.

CMS said the “young mother of four small children” had very little money left to pay “even a nominal fine” and was “visibly distraught and utterly devastate..”

“She would not be allowed to leave the island if she had an unpaid fine. It was Friday ... . It was in those wholly exceptional circumstances that the sentence of admonished and discharged was deemed appropriate,” the agency explained.

The police document revealed, too, that Justice Bertram Morrison imposed total fines of $170,000 on a man convicted for illegal possession of firearm and ammunition and a fine of $70,000 on a man convicted for possession of ammunition.

But CMS said that in handing down the sentence, the judge had the benefit of social enquiry reports, “which contained more mitigating than aggravating circumstances and reflected the previous good character of the defendants”.

“A significant factor was that by the time of sentencing, the men had already been in custody for four years, which, according to law, had to be deducted from the sentences to be handed down. The sentences were, therefore, effectively four years’ imprisonment, plus the fines imposed,” it explained.