Legal Year Opens, TCI’s DPP reveals conviction rates

By Dana Malcolm 

Staff Writer 

#TurksandCaicos, January 11, 2023 – The Turks and Caicos preliminary conviction rates for 2022 were revealed in the recent Legal Year Opening ceremony held on January 4th.  Eugene Otuonye, KC, Director of Public Prosecutions made the statistics public but before getting into them he revealed that data was missing in some areas notably January to March but did not say why.

Based on the available numbers, the Magistrate’s court had a conviction rate of 84% with 184 convictions from the 209 cases tried.  The cases at the magistrates level are usually minor including theft, break ins etc. or preliminary trials for cases that will move on to higher courts.

At the Supreme Court of the 66 cases tried, 50 ended in convictions based on guilty pleas or verdicts, only seven cases came back not guilty or were dismissed.  Sixteen cases were withdrawn, resulting in a 76 percent conviction rate, the DPP said.

Otuonye detailed some of the offences tried during the year citing forgeries, homicides and firearm and ammunition offences.

Only three cases went to the Court of Appeal, two were dismissed and only one criminal case went to the Privy Council which awaits a verdict.

Several high profile misses in the justice system were recorded in 2022 in both criminal and civil matters, one of which put a suspected sex criminal back on the street.  They ranged from a conflict of interest with the police provided translator in one case to huge payouts because of poor treatment of migrants and permanent residents, and improper introduction of evidence by prosecutors in others

The DPP maintained that convictions were not the sole aim of prosecutors.

“While the rate of conviction dismissal and acquittal may more reflect the state of the criminal justice system it can hardly be used to assess the effectiveness of a prosecutor whose primary focus is not to seek conviction at all costs but to act as a minister of justice.”

He admitted that the DPPs office was not where it needed to be but said they were working on getting it better in the 2023 year.  The courts of the Turks and Caicos Islands are now officially opened for 2023.

A contrast to last year’s opening which had to be downsized because of emergence of the omicron variant within the Coronavirus pandemic and the attendees having to be spaced out for safety in an open air ceremony, this year was held at the St Monica’s Anglican Church and the Annex courtroom.  Attended by members of all three arms of Government.