A Principal State Attorney, Mrs Afia Serwah Asare-Botwe has called for a constitutional amendment to abolish jury trial since the system O1ten leads to miscarriage of justice. She argued that the selection process was skewed in favour of illiterates, thereby preventing highly qualified Ghanaians from sitting on the jury. Mrs Asare-Botwe said the prevailing legislation, which allowed only ordinary members of the society, who might have undergone very little or no formal education to sit on the jury, "very often leads to miscarriage of justice." "In most instances, people who deserve conviction are acquitted and those who under normal circumstances warrant acquittal are convicted: In both ways, justice is not served and the only way to avoid such problems is to do away with the jury trial just as countries like Brazil have done," Mrs Asare-Botwe said. Mrs Asare-Botwe said this when she addressed the "Access to justice 2010" stakeholders meeting at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi. The meeting brought together stakeholders in the justice delivery system to brainstorm to find an antidote to the high remand cases the penal system was experiencing. Access to justice is a collaborative effort of the Leitner Centre for International Law and Justice at the Fordham Law School, New York, the African Centre for Development Law, and Policy (ACDLP) and the KNUST Law Faculty, and seeks to promote effective justice delivery. Representatives from the Ghana Police Service, Ghana Prisons Service, the Ghana Bar Association, the Department of Social Welfare, the Attorney General's Department and the Judicial Service, attended the meeting, which also looked for ways to decongest the prisons. Mrs Asare-Botwe said when all the jurors sitting on a case failed to agree on a verdict, there was a hung jury, which leads to the abortion of the trial and justice was delayed, while the suspect unduly continued to languish in remand. "Similarly, when a member of the jury panel is corrupted, indisposed, died, travelled or is unable to attend court for sitting, it only leads to the dissolution of the panel and if the criminal sessions have ended, it takes a very long time to empanel a new jury," she added. "Therefore suspects, who may be innocent, serve years on remand while justice is delayed for them," Mrs Asare-Botwe said. The State Attorney suggested that, in the interim, National Service persons, who were highly resourced and looking for postgraduate experience, could be used as panel members to speedily dispose of the large backlog of cases that were not dealt with during the criminal session. She advised suspects to admit guilt when they had to and show remorse for it to avoid undue delay of justice and incurring the wrath of the courts, when eventually found guilty. Mrs Asare-Botwe also suggested the increased use of plea-bargaining by lawyers, prosecutors and judges in a bid to speed up trial and decongest the prisons by drastically reducing remand cases. A representative of the Ghana Police Service, Supt. F.K. Agyei said the police, as gatekeepers of the justice system, had an onerous­ responsibility to ensure that the rights of everyone was protected. He said there were some bad apples in the service, whose conduct, action and inaction cast a slur on the image of the service and often cause delays and miscarriage of justice, "Sometimes, an investigator wants his or her palms greased before doing his job, which is wrong. The Police Service will not hesitate to deal with any officer who fails to effectively carry out his/her duties and responsibilities, as a result of laziness, some inducements or personal interests," Supt Agyei said. Supt Agyei called for "effective supervision in the service to drastically cut down the large number of problems that led to undue delay of disposing of cases, which had led to the overcrowding of the prisons by remand prisoners. He urged police officers to massively improve upon their performance to reciprocate the massive improvement in their salaries by the government under the Single Spine Salary Scheme, which he said, had motivated personnel. Source: Daily Graphic