Hon. Jeremiah Norbert Presents The Plea Bargaining Bill Rebuttal

Duration: 3:37 602 transcript words EN summary

Video summary

Honorable Jeremiah Norbert opens his address by acknowledging the Prime Minister's unwavering support and foresight in tackling the long-standing issue of court backlogs, which predated their 2021 tenure into office. He highlights a significant achievement where numerous indictable matters that could have resulted in sentences ranging from ten to twenty years or more were successfully disposed of through dedicated efforts by the backlog courts. Norbert emphasizes that resolving at least forty-eight such complex cases represents a monumental success for any judicial system, effectively clearing paths for individuals and demonstrating the government's commitment to efficiency while addressing deep-rooted systemic challenges inherited over time. The core subject of his presentation is The Plea Bargaining Bill, which he describes as a carefully crafted piece of legislation designed to balance critical values such as fairness, accountability, compassion, public interest, and individual rights within the modernized criminal justice framework. Norbert stresses that this bill provides an essential additional tool for the justice system in St. Lucia by strengthening the role of victims through specific provisions found in sections ten, thirteen, and sixteen, ensuring their concerns are seriously considered during development. By introducing plea bargaining as a viable option, the law offers arrested individuals a new pathway to expedite their cases through the legal process without forcing them down a dead-end cul-de-sac where delays were previously inevitable. The speaker concludes by expressing gratitude not only to Prime Minister Seewany and Attorney General for their stellar leadership but also to everyone who supported the bill's progression toward materialization. He envisions a future structured framework that legally empowers individuals to access plea bargaining, thereby delivering timely and effective justice to the people of St. Lucia. While acknowledging that this legislation will not solve every problem in the system immediately, Norbert affirms its importance as another strategic option available to navigate complex legal situations more efficiently. His final remarks underscore a collective hope for a reformed judiciary where both victims receive serious consideration and accused persons have fair opportunities to choose options that expedite their journey through the courts.

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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, let me thank the Prime Minister um for his support. And while the Prime Minister was speaking, Mr. Speaker, I was just going through my email again to look at what the backlog court has been doing. And I'm very happy with the fact that a lot of the matters that the backlog court have been dealing with are indictable matters, matters which traditionally, Mr. Speaker, would have gone 10, 15 years, sometimes 20 years, sometimes more than two decades within the system. So, these matters have been disposed of. Individuals where matters have been withdrawn, that's where matters that have to be withdrawn, it was withdrawn. Where that sentences have to be imposed, the sentence was imposed. So, individuals now can go and it speaks to the foresight of of this honorable Prime Minister to say, and he would have mentioned that the issue was not one that we inherited when we came in to office in 2021, Mr. Speaker. It's a one that existed way before our tenure, our political tenure in 2021. But what he did was to put the mechanism in place so that we can deal with these matters. And I saw at least 48 indictable matters. And Mr. Speaker, 48 may sound like a small number to you, but in terms of when you think of the the statistics and what it means, and for the individuals involved in the judiciary, they'll tell you 48 indictable matters being disposed of is a huge, huge, huge success for anyone and any judicial system, and even for us as a government. So, I want to thank the Prime Minister and those individuals and the Attorney General. Again, Prime Minister Seewany smiles. We don't know if it's a smile of approval or of disapproval, but always thank him for his hard work. Um Mr. Speaker, again Again, Mr. Speaker, I just to remind us of of what the bill does. The bill is a carefully crafted piece of legislation that balances efficiency with fairness fairness fairness fairness accountability compassion and public interest with individual rights. It also modernizes the criminal justice framework. It strengthens the role of the victims and again Mr. Speaker you would have heard me mention in section I think 10 13 and 16 the provisions made there for victims very happy that the victims were given serious consideration in the development of this bill and the preparing of this the preparation of this bill and it provides the justice system with an additional tool. I think that's the most important part Mr. Speaker. It provides the the justice system with an additional tool to deliver timely and effective justice to the people of St. Lucia. So we know that this will not solve everything but it gives us yet another option Mr. Speaker. So you know you're not just going down a cul-de-sac. You have the opportunity. So someone who's arrested now have the opportunity to be able to choose that option and we can expedite through the system. We can expedite the process for them through the system. So again Mr. Speaker I thank Prime Minister for his um unwavering support and for his stellar leadership and foresight and for us to be able to be here the Attorney General and their team I thank them and I just want to say thanks to everyone who supported the bill and I look forward to it actually materializing where we have that structured framework that legal body where individuals can now access a plea bargain. Thank you Mr. Speaker.