BVI News

Increase jury pool by adding long-term residents, COI report says

The Commission of Inquiry (COI) report — issued by Sir Gary Hickinbottom — has called upon the relevant officials in the BVI to revise the territory’s Jury Act.

Under the Jury Act currently, only persons who are Belongers, who have lived in the territory for at least 10 years, are between the ages of 21 and 60, have no previous convictions, and are not currently members of the House of Assembly are eligible to be jurors.

But according to the territory’s Director of Public Prosecutions, Tiffany Scatliffe-Esprit, these eligibility requirements have the effect of significantly restricting the size of the jury pool.

In light of this issue, Sir Gary recommended that the Act be reviewed in two main ways.

He said consideration should first be given to increasing the size of the jury pool. Here, he suggested changing the criteria to enable and require those who are long-term residents to sit on juries.

Second, consideration should be given to granting the court wider powers to hear judge-only criminal trials.

Jurisdiction of the BVI is just too small

According to the COI report, DPP Scatliffe-Esprit and the Commissioner of Police had advocated for these changes when they appeared before the COI last year.

It was expressed that the jurisdiction of the BVI is small, and finding jurors who do not know and are unrelated to witnesses and the accused is usually challenging.

At the time, the DPP said she considers that the eligibility criteria should be revised to allow those aged 18 and above and those who have been resident for five years (as opposed to 10 years) to be jurors.

Scatliffe Esprit also said that information should be gathered and cross-referenced across government agencies to ensure that there is a complete and accurate list of those eligible for jury service.

Based on the evidence taken during the inquiry, Sir Gary said: “I am persuaded by the submissions I received that the current provisions for juries are not in the interests of justice.”

His recommendation in this regard, served as one of several suggestions aimed specifically at improving law-enforcement and justice in the territory.

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18 Comments

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  1. Yikes says:

    Not sure who would volunteer for that or maybe it will be forced upon the long termers.
    That would be a death sentence for the long term resident,they better have a bunch of armed bodyguards before during and after the trial 24-7 365. not a good incentive to stay in the bvi long term just the opposite.
    yikes

    Like 4
    Dislike 15
    • Yup says:

      The Belongers on trial would love to see a jury of “clears” rather than their cousins and aunties. Lmfao. Thank the Lord!! A new has come to the Belonger of the BVI!!

  2. Cato says:

    Sone “Long termers” will happily accept the offer. They will be compensated.

    Like 10
    Dislike 1
  3. Increase Age Limit says:

    And the age limit should be increased too…. it could easily be raised from 60 to 65 (or more).

    Like 14
  4. Juries says:

    Better to have the criminal jury trials in London, England than in a small colony. In the BVI there is plenty of legal work in the civil and commercial courts to keep the judges, staff, clerks, etc. busy forever without the burden of criminal jury trials.

    UK courts regularly hear cases where BVI law is applicable so why not jury trials. The summary offenses in the BVI would still be prosecuted in Magistrates Court but the indictable offenses would be moved to London for criminal jury trials.

    Like 8
    Dislike 3
  5. Rubber Duck says:

    why 60? – with age comes wisdom

  6. concerned citizen says:

    To the Administrators of the comment section (Do not publish please read and consider)

    I am writing to ask you to please shut down the comment sections on this site for the near future just print the news and no comments.

    They say that all publicity is good publicity but this is terrible publicity. The comments are embarrassing the country.

    The world is watching and the comments paint the people writing them as ignorant, and small-minded.

    The news reports are bad enough but these comments are blowing it out of proportion now.

    Bearing in mind that 60cents on every dollar is coming from financial services and 40 cents on every dollar is coming from tourism. We really need to take our “image” into consideration. The comments are portraying the country as one that the world shouldn’t do business with or visit.

    Please administrators on this site, I am imploring you to shut the comment sections down.

    Like 6
    Dislike 7
  7. Not true says:

    Based on what I saw… we have a healthy list of jurors. We were even told that we would not be called back for another 4 years because the number of eligible jurors have increased significantly – perhaps the fast tracking contributed to this:)

    Quiet a few expats have family members and close friends on island. This is the nature of our society…not sure if this approach will help much but it wouldnt hurt to try.

    Like 4
    Dislike 2
  8. Jim says:

    Need to remove the racist, archaic, and ignorant cast system of belongership.

    In the 21st century we still have a divided citizenry which pits one person against another.

    How about we drop it and step into the future?

    Like 8
    Dislike 3
    • BVI! says:

      Fully agree! There is a lot of talk about how bad the ancestors were treated. Well let me tell you, the so called belongers do exactly the same or worse…This is the former South Africa of the Caribbean, apartheid still exist….so sad.

      Like 5
      Dislike 1
  9. Haha says:

    I dont think we have a jury pool issue because it’s been at least 15 years since I last sat as a juror and I still fit the criteria. I think whatever the process is needs to be tweaked because some people get selected every year.

    • I'm Not Hoping to Get Called but..... says:

      I’ve actually never been called to sit on a jury for my entire life, and I am born and raised here with both parents and grandparents, etc. born and raised here themselves. I have no criminal record or no reason for them not to call me, but I’ve never been called. They have to have a set of people they just feel like calling over and over again.

  10. Wait says:

    Long term residents should do jury duty when you don’t give them citizenship, voting or human rights?
    Look, the way out of this is to give all those long term residents their citizenship. Let the voting pool and the jury pool finally represent the population and not just the relatives and friends who run this place for themselves.

  11. Remembering says:

    Who picks the jury pool? I was only called once to serve on a jury, was in the 1980’s. I clearly remember one of the jurors’s windshield was smashed, during lengthy deliberations. It became a “hung jury” and the case had to be retried. My neighbor suddenly told me I had to stop parking on the side of the road near his house. Jury duty is not fun. The defendant’s boat engine mechanic’s wife was on the jury. And also a distant family member. I agree that taking big cases to the UK is a great idea.

  12. Madea says:

    How any Jury be fair here as most of the belongers all know each other or their families etc.

  13. Rall says:

    So you think that anyone brave enough to convict the murderers and drug lords and put all their famillies at risk?

  14. Madea says:

    Why do you think Fahie and Maynard was arrested in the USA? Because no jury would convict him or her here! Too much at stake.

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