Judicial System improved says Chief Justice Ramsay-Hale

Providenciales, TCI, January 12, 2017 –  The judicial process is getting better according to statistics revealed by the Chief Justice yesterday, when she led the opening of the 2017 legal year.   Hon Margaret Ramsay-Hale said there were 89 criminal cases, 69 of those were new and 22 were brought from 2013.  

In 26 matters, the defendants she said entered guilty pleas and of the remaining 63 cases, nine were found guilty, five found not guilty of the crime.   There were two instances of no case to answer by the accused and there were 15 matters either discontinued or dismissed for reasons like insufficient evidence.   Still, said CJ Ramsay-Hale it was a better year, reminding the attendees that in 2014 there were as many as 30 cases falling into the category where the court would have wasted time and resources and residents were unjustly held. 

The Chief Justice explained, “Last year I observed that this represented 30% of all persons who had been arrested, charged and often deprived of their liberty in the circumstances where there was in fact, on the information in the hands of the police and the prosecution, an insufficiency of evidence to show that they had committed the offences with which they were charged.   I think this is an improvement which is worthy of note.”

The prosecution rate of cases dealt with from 2015, put at 80% by the Chief Justice. 

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