The Tribune

By KEILE CAMPBELL

kcampbell@tribunemedia.net

NATIONAL Security Minister Wayne Munroe said an amendment to the Supreme Court Act can potentially facilitate evidentiary hearings to determine the admissibility of evidence before a trial.

The bill, which passed the House of Assembly on Wednesday, would facilitate making rules to regulate and promote the active management of criminal and civil matters.

Mr Munroe said Chief Justice Sir Ian Winder had shown support for evidentiary hearings.

These evidentiary hearings, he said, could lead to a shift in legal proceedings. Rather than waiting for a trial to determine the admissibility of certain evidence, the hearings could encourage more plea agreements, expedite the legal process and reduce the burden on the judicial system.

He said: “You would’ve all reported on a case that was in court for two weeks. There’s a trial within a trial about the admissibility of a confession. The confession is excluded. There being no other evidence, the accused is directed to be acquitted. In that instance, two weeks of a judge’s time, a jury’s time was taken where if the fact of the admissibility of the confession had been determined beforehand and it had been excluded, you would’ve saved two weeks. That happens over and over again.

 “And so when you can determine these matters that can bring a case to an end upfront, you save the time that you would’ve been in trial up to the point of determining that in a matter of weeks.

“In the same way, if there’s DNA evidence, fingerprint evidence, confession evidence, which if it is admitted would make a difficult case for the accused, competent lawyers if the evidence is admitted, would advise the accused to seek a plea agreement.”

Mr Munroe noted that in the United States, an 80 per cent conviction rate for cases that go to trial makes people more likely to take a plea agreement when they see the strength of the evidence.

“You could never try all of the cases that are brought before our courts, and so it will be important that we have increased plea agreements,” he said.

“The ability to have evidentiary hearings at the beginning will drive that to be hopefully, as is seen elsewhere, a reality.”