MINISTER FOR Justice Dermot Ahern has introduced a Bill allowing for the retrial of defendants acquitted in serious criminal cases, ending the “double jeopardy” rule.
The Criminal Procedure Bill 2009 also gives the families of victims a statutory right to provide a victim impact statement, and expands the definition of a victim to include their family. It also gives the court “powers to prohibit the publication of any inappropriate remarks made in the course of an oral statement”.
Introducing the Bill in the Dáil, Mr Ahern said the double jeopardy rule “holds that an acquittal is a final decision, and an acquitted person may not be pursued again in respect of the same offence. Currently, the State cannot reopen a case following an acquittal, regardless of the circumstances in which it was arrived at. However, a convicted person has full rights of appeal against both conviction and sentence.”
He said that “acquittals that are the result of perjury or the concealment of evidence, for instance, cannot be said to be deserved. The Bill is, therefore, targeted at and limited to those most undeserved acquittals.”
Mr Ahern told the Dáil the Bill “has been motivated primarily by my desire to improve the standing of victims of crime in the trial process”.
Fine Gael justice spokesman Charlie Flanagan claimed that the Minister “has adopted a narrow-minded approach, the result of which will be a poor service to the victims of crime and their families, who will ultimately lose out”.
He said that in sexual assault cases, victims should have the option of making the names of the accused public while theirs remain anonymous.
“The current position is that for the accused’s name to be made public the victim must also go public – an unfair provision that places the victim in an invidious position.” He criticised the Minister’s “quasi-judicial function in signing off on parole or early release. If the Minister is to remain independent of sentencing matters, then allowing the Minister to exercise judgment on the commuting of a prisoner’s sentence runs contrary to this.”
Mr Ahern asked “Do you want to have non-elected persons decide?”
Mr Flanagan welcomed the “decision to extend to family members of victims of crime the entitlement to make an oral statement or a victim impact statement at a sentencing hearing. I note the provisions dealing with double jeopardy which deal also with such issues as intimidation, errors in trial and new evidence emerging which may not have been available at the time of the original trial. We must ensure this welcome provision is robust enough to withstand any constitutional challenge.”
Labour justice spokesman Pat Rabbitte gave a “broad welcome” to the Bill and “the prominence given to revision of the existing statutory provisions for victim impact statements and to widening the range of persons who will be entitled to make such statements”.
He had “grave reservations” about the adequacy of the non-statutory witness protection programme. “I have direct knowledge of serious criminal trials where innocent persons were required on pain of incarceration to give evidence, and they did so in fear of their lives.
“These persons have paid a huge price for doing their duty by the State, including loss of employment, break-up of marriages and dislocation from their own environment, and they believe their lives are at risk. The Minister must turn his mind to this issue and the obligation on the State to provide reasonable ongoing protection for citizens who have done their duty by the State at such personal cost and who live in ongoing fear of their lives.”
