Two Miscarriages of Justice

Malta Independent
April 28, 2012

http://www.independent.com.mt/news.asp?newsitemid=143525

In the space of just over a week, there have been two cases where the judiciary were forced into clearing people accused of crimes, supported by evidence and testimony, due to errors in the charge sheets drawn up against them.

This newspaper published a leading article last week, calling for changes to the law, whereby any errors in charges pressed against an accused may be changed at any time in proceedings. The leading article was published in the wake of an Appeals Court ruling which cleared Fr Godwin Scerri (since defrocked) of rape. The court had cleared him of raping a young boy in his care because of an error which stated that the crime took place in Marfa, rather than Santa Venera.

The Attorney General appealed the decision, but the law is the law and the court upheld the original decision. Let us be clear – the judiciary's hands were tied, the law is what it is and there was no other ruling that could be given.

But now, less than a week later, three police officers and a bouncer were acquitted of assaulting a foreign student and damaging his camera because the charge sheet stated that the incident took place at 11pm and not 3am.

It is not this newspaper's business or role to weigh up the evidence and pass judgement on people who are accused of committing crimes. But it is this newspaper's business to point out that these were two grave miscarriages of justice. What is unacceptable in all this is that the courts pointed out that the reasons for the acquittals (or dismissed appeal) were simply due to errors on the charge sheets.

We cannot have a situation where, in 2012, people are walking away scot-free because of procedural mistakes. In fact, these errors are examples of gross incompetence. But more than hanging people out to dry, the onus should be on changing the laws to prevent such incidents from occurring again. This could be done by changing the law to allow charges to be corrected at a later date, or by allowing the court discretion to make its own deductions.

Much has been said about the 'urgent' need to reform the justice sector, but it is our belief that it is small procedures, such as these, that need urgent attention. We have already seen a man cleared of raping a young vulnerable boy and there was public outcry. In fact, it has perhaps eroded the faith some people have in the judicial system. What would happen, for example, if a murderer walked away from court because someone wrote down the wrong time or date on a charge sheet? Would he or she walk away too? Because if something doesn't change, that might actually happen.