JURORS ABANDON COURTS...They are afraid of death (MIRROR, DEC 12, LEAD STORY)

From Moses Dotsey Aklorbortu, Sekondi

For murder suspects on remand in various jails in the Western Region, justice may be denied or delayed for a long time, due to a lack of jurors to sit on their cases.
Some cases are said to be pending for years, because requests for people to serve on juries are turned down, due to the meagre allowances that the job attracts. There are also reports that some of the prospective jurors refuse to be on the panels because they fear that the suspects, when finally convicted, may curse them to death.
The long delays are, however, in contravention of the 1992 Constitution which guarantees the fundamental human rights and freedom of the people and also calls for the trial of suspects within a reasonable time frame. These provisions are to be respected and upheld by the Executive, the Legislature, the Judiciary and all other organs of the state.
The Supervising High Court Judge, Sekondi, Justice Reuben Batu, made the comments at the inauguration of the Western Regional Police Committee.
Quoting the constitution to support his remarks, he said Article 14 (3-4) of the 1992 Constitution stated that “A person who is arrested, restricted or detained — (a) for the purpose of bringing him before a court in execution of an order of a court; or (b) upon reasonable suspicion of his having committed or being about to commit a criminal offence under the laws of Ghana, and who is not released, shall be brought before a court within forty-eight hours after the arrest, restriction or detention.
Referring to clause (4), he said, “Where a person arrested, restricted or detained under paragraph (a) or (b) of clause (3) of this article is not tried within a reasonable time, then without prejudice to any further proceedings that may be brought against him, he shall be released, either unconditionally or upon reasonable conditions, including in particular, conditions reasonably necessary to ensure that he appears at a later date for trial or for proceedings preliminary to trial.”
He said the failure to empanel juries was as a result of the refusal of people to accept requests by courts to serve as jurors, transfer of CID personnel and the inability to get lawyers for the suspects.
“There are many cases and the people have been on remand for so long, some from 2003 to date, which is not the best. At the moment, we have about 46 cases in Tarkwa, out of which 26 are murder cases,” he said.
That aside, he said transfer of police investigators without checking if they had cases pending in court led to the cases they were handling being put on hold, thereby increasing the plight of the suspects on remand.
He, therefore, appealed to heads of departments to release people to enable the court to empanel jurors to sit on cases of murder and manslaughter.
He said to ensure that the cases were tried within reasonable time and before officers were transferred, they should check whether or not they had cases pending in court.
For her part, the Deputy Western Regional Minister, Ms Betty Bosumtwi-Sam, urged the committee to help ensure effective policing in the region.
She said even though the region recorded a decline in crime, there was still much to be done to ensure a drastic reduction and possibly a crime free society.
The committee of 24 members, mainly made up of ex-police/military officers, was under the chairmanship of the Western Regional Minister, Mr Paul Evans Aidoo.