Judicial Misconceptions

2182 Words9 Pages

General Aim: To Argue
Specific Aim: To convince the audience that equity in the Jamaican judicial system is a misconception.
Introduction
WE WANT JUSTICE! WE WANT JUSTICE! This is a sentiment shared by persons on the prosecution and the defendant side of the court whom have suffered from a lack of equity in the judicial system; from the person who is wrongfully convicted to the mother of an innocent child who has been shot and the perpetrator gets to walk away not convicted. Each year, thousands of people are convicted of crimes they did not commit.
What is equity? According to the Legal Dictionary (2016) equity is a venerable group of rights and procedures to provide fairness, unhampered by the narrow strictures of the old common law or …show more content…

In fact, a national poll commissioned by The Gleaner has found that; ONLY THREE per cent (3%) of Jamaicans are of the view that the poor and the rich are treated the same way by the legal system (Luton, 2014). It is common knowledge to all Jamaicans that even the simplest of court case here in Jamaica can run up to five years; now a case of this duration is costly to an affluent person, how much more so is it for someone who is considered indigent, how can five years of going back and forth be called fair or due process? While an affluent person can afford to have his/her lawyer drag out the case for years or put a swift end to it, the judgement for the less fortunate is at the whim of our equitable judicial system.
Additionally, Prosecutors misconduct sometimes cause loss of cases in Jamaica (Davis _Ernest_ v General Legal Council, 2014). By the same token, persons are often denied the right to fair trial because the Prosecution has failed to give disclosure of material evidence in a timely manner (Director of public prosecution v Senior resident magistrate for corporate area, …show more content…

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The Jamaica Observer,. (2016). Dismiss cases five years and older, Justice Minister urges judges. Retrieved from

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