NASSAU-The Supreme Court will resume all bail hearings next week.
On March 20, Chief Justice Brian Moree QC stopped most bail hearings because of the coronavirus pandemic. However, the Supreme Court still heard emergency bail applications.
With courts operating on a limited basis, scores of un-sentenced inmates had no idea when they could seek pre-trial release.
Magistrates have no choice to deny bail for most offences. That’s because a 2011 amendment to the Bail Act removed their power to consider bail.
The amendment prevented magistrates from granting bail for drug possession with intent to supply, and firearms offences.
Additionally, magistrates cannot consider bail for offences, which can be tried either by magistrate or before a judge and jury in the Supreme Court. Offences like threats of death, housebreaking and stealing fall within this category.
In December 2019, Parliament announced its intention to return the power to grant bail to magistrates.
However, this has yet to happen.
At the 2018 opening of the Legal Year, Acting Chief Justice Stephen Isaacs said the amendment had increased the court’s workload and put people without lawyers at a disadvantage.
Isaacs said this was counter-productive.
He said, “It has the potential of creating resentment toward the authorities by those young persons caught up in this conveyor belt bail process.”
