BE NOT DISHEARTENED
Senior counsel tells cops that success under anti-gang law will not come overnight
IN the wake of the just-concluded court proceedings, locally referred to as the ‘Uchence Wilson Gang trial’, which saw 15 of an original 24 accused acquitted, noted defence attorney Peter Champagnie, QC, says the police should “not be disheartened”, while pointing out that there is need for reform of the Criminal Justice (Suppression of Criminal
Organisations) Act, which was relied on in the matter.
Champagnie’s client, Detective Corporal Lloyd Knight, was declared not guilty by trial judge Chief Justice Bryan Sykes on the basis that there was insufficient evidence to establish that the policeman was involved in the alleged activities of the criminal gang. Knight, who spent two years and 10 months behind bars because of those charges, was yesterday “elated” by his release, according to his attorney.
Speaking with the Jamaica Observer in an interview after the conclusion of a summation which stretched well over two weeks, and now sees nine men, including convicted gang leader Uchence Wilson awaiting sentencing come the end of November, Champagnie said the trial should prove instructive to the prosecution and the police alike.
“The trial, to my mind, bodes very well for the development of our jurisprudence here, because the legislation is fairly new and it represents, I think, perhaps the third or fourth trial of this nature and, apart from the legislation being fairly new, this particular trial was somewhat complex in terms of the number of charges and also the number of accused persons,” he pointed out.
In critiquing the statute, commonly referred to as the anti-gang legislation, the attorney said: “I would like to take the approach in a wholesome way to say, certainly, that there is need for reform in terms of the legislation, because [for example] the reception into evidence of electronic data is very difficult under the legislation, [this was demonstrated during the just-concluded trial]. In terms of executing search warrants, it is difficult because you have to meet a number of the common law principles and, perhaps by statute, that will have to be revisited, because sometimes these cases, in terms of the scenario, it is fluid and time is of the essence,” he pointed out.
Noting that members of the public tend to flay the police and prosecution for the perceived low conviction numbers, Champagnie said the challenge was the heavy reliance on the witness of ex-gang members or associates and not so much shoddy work.
“By way of a general critique, and this comes in the way of the prosecution, I know the members of the public are perhaps concerned that there have not been much convictions under this legislation, and this is not because the police have not done a good job; it is simply because in these cases it is oftentimes built upon one witness who is a self-confessed criminal, an ex-member of the gang, so when you have that person being the star witness for the prosecution, you are going to obviously suffer from a number of deficiencies in terms of credibility and, therefore, you are going to have that challenge,” he pointed out.
“Although corroboration is not required, unless it is that the police is going to try and find independent evidence to confirm what the self-confessed person is saying, then you are going to have a challenge,” he noted further.
On the other hand, he said there was an overall tendency by the police “to do a dragnet situation, where they arrest someone and charge the person for an offence such as murder, and so as to prevent the person getting bail it is casually mentioned that the person is part of a gang, and it acts as an impediment towards bail”.
“So the legislation is subject to being abused. But the legislation overall is far-reaching, because all it requires is for three or more persons to [demonstrate an intent] to commit a serious offence; the offence doesn’t have to be committed, so it is far-reaching,” he stated.
The lawyer, in the meantime, hailed the judgement of Chief Justice Bryan Sykes in his weighing of the evidence in the matter.
“To the extent that it (the legislation) is far-reaching, all the more reason the judge has to be careful in coming to a conclusion of guilt. And I believe that this judgement of the learned chief justice was exceptional; it was detailed, he went through a number of points that were not seen by either the prosecution or the defence, and in the circumstances it is what it is in terms of the results,”
Champagnie told the Observer.
“But I don’t think the [police] should be disheartened, if they are, because it is a new piece of legislation and a success under it is not achieved overnight; it takes a lot of time and it requires the cooperation of citizens, generally, to come forward as complainants in the case,” he explained.
Yesterday, Justice Sykes, in dispensing with the matter, released four of the remaining 13 accused who had been on trial as the charges against them collapsed, leaving the nine, including Wilson.
The judge has, in the meantime, ordered social enquiry reports for each of the remaining individuals which
are expected six weeks from now.
“Gentlemen, assuming all goes well, the sentencing phase will commence on November 30,” Justice Sykes said before proceeding to thank their attorneys in the matter for their “stamina and fortitude” during the trial and extremely painstaking summation.
Wilson and others were arrested by the Counterterrorism and Organized Crime Investigation Branch (C-TOC) in 2017 and were said to be part of one of the island’s most organised and vile gangs that was responsible for robberies, extortion, rapes, murders, and the theft of a number of licensed firearms.