We’re anxious to see how Chief Justice Zaila McCalla will rationalise the exercise of her discretion to entertain the application by lawyers representing Mr Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke, if only to assure ourselves that she hasn’t succumbed to the temptation to play to the gallery.
According to yesterday’s edition of the Daily Observer, Mrs McCalla reserved her decision on an application for a Judicial Review of Justice Minister Dorothy Lightbourne’s decision to proceed with the extradition case against Mr Coke, who is accused by the United States Government of drug- and gun-running.
Considering that Mr Coke is a fugitive, who by his refusal to turn himself in has demonstrated that he has no confidence in, or respect for the judicial system of which she is head, we are baffled as to why Mrs McCalla would choose to entertain the matter in the first place, much less to reserve judgement on it.
For she cannot be unaware that if she gives Mr Coke’s lawyers what they want, namely a stay of execution of the warrant, the country would find itself right back at square one.
If she dismisses the application, as we think she will, then apart from the judicial reasoning which we can’t imagine would be taken seriously by any reputable legal publication, the whole exercise would have been a grand waste of time.
We must, as a society which realises that its democracy is under severe threat from crime and corruption, ask ourselves if we can afford to play around with valuable court time in this manner.
As a growing jurisprudence which is supposed to be coming into its own in terms of establishing a Caribbean Court of Justice to adjudicate final appeals, it is imperative that our judges demonstrate their ability to exercise their discretion with the intellectual maturity of which we know they are capable.
If they don’t, our far-from-perfect judicial system will continue to be undermined and replaced by the type of jungle justice, glimpses of which members of the Jamaica Defence Force unearthed in Tivoli Gardens last week, which flies in the face of decency.
It is not necessary to search very hard for examples of this phenomenon. Mob justice is no respecter of systems the world over and the horror stories coming out of Tivoli Gardens, from the bloody metal baseball bat to the torture chamber, are not unique.
We know that a state-of-the-art judicial system, complete with modern technology, might not, given the reality of finite resources, be on the cards for us just yet.
It doesn’t follow that the system can’t inspire respect and confidence by setting a standard which does not court and encourage fanciful applications of the nature of Mr Coke’s.
For let’s face it, his application is fanciful at best, downright frivolous at worst.
He is, after all, a fugitive, in whose name some 76 lives have been lost and countless others disrupted.
He has cost the country millions in quantifiable losses, probably billions in intangible.
Thanks to him, hundreds of school children have been traumatised and displaced.
Never mind the rantings of the attention-seeking Reverend Al Miller, whose attempts to romanticise Mr Coke sickened the stomachs of so many last week.
Mr Coke, innocent as he must be deemed until proven guilty, needs to come off the run.
Until then, he should not be afforded a hearing in any forum that purports to be supportive of law and order.
No matter how good a story it makes.
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