The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

Anyone following sentencing by Magistrates for gun possession, and then following the names of repeat offenders that pop up every few months or years, charged with the same offence, will be left with no sense of wonderment as to the principle reason for the high rate of gun violence in the country.

Last Friday, Magistrate Samuel McKinney sentenced a former Defence Force officer to a term of imprisonment for possession of a nine millimetre pistol. While acknowledging that the accused’s status as a uniformed officer involved a breach of public trust, the magistrate then inexplicably exercised his discretion to give a sentence of only two years – less than one third of the statutory maximum for magistrates.

In light of the evidence of that case, the sentence would have been shocking anywhere but in The Bahamas. The gun that the accused was in possession of had its serial number erased, which means it was essentially customised for murder or other serious offences.

The accused not only “possessed” the weapon, but at the time of his apprehension, was discharging it late at night as he drove through a residential neighbourhood – putting at risk the lives of Bahamians sitting in their homes or even lying in bed. Yet Magistrate McKinney felt it was worthy of only two of a possible seven years’ imprisonment.

In Cayman (a place that takes public safety seriously) the minimum sentence for illegal possession of a firearm is ten years. Here the maximum is seven. In Cayman, the UK or Bermuda the minimum is almost never given, while here light sentences are passed in the most aggravated of cases. Recently, a magistrate gave an even lighter sentence to a man whose excuse for needing an illegal 9 millimetre pistol was that he was a drug dealer and needed it for protection from a rival!

Moreover, in other jurisdictions magistrates would not even consider departing from the maximum sentence where the accused has not told prosecutors or the court where he obtained the firearm, permitting law enforcement to address the problem further up the criminal food chain. Here neither the prosecutors nor the magistrate seem remotely interested in pursuing the matter.

Once again, all our talk of crime plans and “serious measures” will come to naught unless and until we deal with our judges and magistrates and the discretion they are given over sentencing and bail. It is my opinion that they are not up to the task and are putting our society at risk daily.

ANDREW ALLEN

Nassau,

February 13, 2016.