Madam, - The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform has said that the Criminal Justice Bill is designed to tackle gangland and drug-related crime. He has criticised the judiciary for being "soft on bail" and for failing to hand down mandatory sentences.
The Bill proposes new mandatory sentences. It is noteworthy that some Australian and American states are returning powers of discretion to the judiciary, because of prison overcrowding and unjust sentences caused by mandatory sentencing. The proposed sentencing measures, if enacted, will force Irish judges to hand down sentences which heretofore they have been reluctant to pass, which will be excessive and unjust, and will lead to a larger prison population serving longer sentences. The Bill, by removing judicial discretion, may also be open to constitutional challenge.
The Bill proposes new Garda powers of detention for questioning, encroaches on the rights to silence, and does so against the ongoing backdrop of the Morris tribunal. This tribunal has shown that unchecked and unbalanced powers are open to abuse by An Garda Síochána. The lessons of the tribunal do not seem to have been learned by this Minister. The Dean Lyons affair arose due to events entirely within a Garda station, and increased powers of detention are likely to lead to further such episodes.
The constitutional right to bail, an entitlement of every citizen accused of a criminal act, is greatly weakened by the Bill. It proposes electronically tagging persons who are entitled to a presumption of innocence. The changes in the law relating to bail will lead to delays, and will inevitably lead to unconvicted persons spending increased periods in prison.
The Bill allows for statement of the "opinion" of a chief superintendent that the refusal of bail is necessary to prevent the commission of a further offence by the accused. Providing for a refusal of bail on the grounds of unsubstantiated opinion evidence is, in our view, unacceptable. As lucidly argued by former attorney general John Rogers SC in these pages recently, the proposals will create a judiciary with little function but to rubber-stamp opinion-based Garda objections to bail, arguably a further unconstitutional development.
Undoubtedly, we need to tackle gangland and drug-related crime. But this Bill will not in our view reduce crime rates and will result in many varied injustices.
All of the signatories to this letter are solicitors in criminal practice. - Yours, etc,
SHALOM BINCHY, Four Couts, Dublin 7.
( Also signed by Michael Staines, Jenny McGeever, Declan Fahy,Fionnuala O'Sullivan,Gerry O'Brien, Michael Hennessey, Terence Hanahoe, Pat McGonagle,Noel McCartan, Jonathan Dunphy,Aoife McCann, Conway O'Hara, Brian McKenzie, John Quinn, Sarah Molloy, Michelle Finan, Edward Bradbury, Fiona Brennan, Grainne Malone, Patrick Daly, John O'Doherty, Michael Kelleher, Margaret McEvilly, Gareth Noble, Alison Brennan, Donough Molloy, Dara Robinson, Moirin Moynihan, Peter Mullan, Catherine Almond,Robert Eagar, Garrett Sheehan,Matthew Kenny, Kieran Conway,Claire Naughton, Conal Boyce,Niall Dolan, Ann Dolan, Ciara McCann, Martin Cosgrove, Maura Kiely, Eugene Dunne, Brigid Rouse, Irene Daly, Mairead White, Adrian Lennon, Michael Finucane, Deborah Kelleher, Yvonne Bambury, John Feaheny, Cahir O'Higgins, Murrough O'Rourke, Caroline Egan, Paul Byrne, Aine Flynn, Conor O'Brien, Claire O'Regan, James McGuill, Philip Hannon, Alan Gannon, Carol Ní Chormaic, Kelly Breen, Peter Connolly and Anarine McAllister.)