Polack Post: Caribbean Prosecutions – Justice For All ?

Peter Polack By Peter Polack It was recently reported in the Cayman Islands that a former convicted lawyer and football official was employed under the Deputy Governor Second Chances program with the fire service. This is an exemplary program that deserves wider use and funding. The reward for the West Bay mass shooting in the Premier’s constituency remains unclaimed. There are some murmurs and noises of dissatisfaction, likely from those who prefer charged persons to opt for suicide from one of the few tall trees in the Cayman Islands. Those theorists are fixated on detection, apprehension, prosecution, imprisonment and recidivist rates, not rehabilitation or prevention. The Second Chance program has little recidivism failure but it is not a one size fits all for the nearly twenty lucky candidates. It deserves a vastly increased budget and middle ground. It should have Caribbean wide application, not Caribbean wide official assassinations. In a local case some years ago a young man bravely faced down nearly five years of unjust investigation and prosecution before the then Director of Public Prosecutions stayed the prosecution. Another young man at the same time faced a similar prosecution on almost the same facts before he was convicted, then entered prison for an irreversibly changed life. Too little too late. Another young man in similar circumstances,now in politics, has represented the country as a minister. A model of rehabilitation and proof of a second chance. The circle of sin. I have relatives who have laundered money to help others evade taxes, stole $5,000 from a local bank, sold drugs before joining law enforcement, all without ever seeing the inside of a police station or court. There may be members of the police, prosecution and judiciary who are in the same uncomfortable position. It is not their fault. It is not my fault. Sometimes it is the ones who are not caught who are of the greatest venality. They move among us like paragons of virtue as the skeletons rattle in their closet. Recently, two firearm prosecutions failed before the court when the jury disagreed with the prosecution. No oversight or peer review. Crying for a prosecution inspectorate or early and enhanced judicial review. Court room waste. A growing lack of confidence. There was another announcement that an anti-money laundering regulator had been appointed to oversight lawyers. No mention of average persons, businessmen, real estate agents, accountants, corporate managers, jewelers, aircraft or vessel registration personnel. The list is endless. So long as the government of the day remains fixated on the financial industry, while Rome burns, there can be no hope for the future. Peter Polack is a former criminal lawyer from the Cayman Islands for several decades. His books are The Last Hot Battle of the Cold War: South Africa vs. Cuba in the Angolan Civil War (2013), Jamaica, The Land of Film (2017) and Guerrilla Warfare: Kings of Revolution (2019). He was a contributor to Encyclopedia of Warfare (2013). His latest book is a compendium of Russian espionage activities with almost five hundred Soviet spies expelled from nearly 100 countries worldwide 1940-88. His views are his own.