TRINIDAD and Tobago’s apex court – the Privy Council – has dismissed an appeal by the Attorney General, settling the controversial issue of granting bail to anyone charged with murder.
On Thursday, the Privy Council upheld the landmark ruling of the Court of Appeal in February, which led to the first successful bail application by a murder accused in more than a century in TT in March.
In its ruling, the Appeal Court – comprising Chief Justice Ivor Archie and Justices of Appeal Mira Dean-Armorer and Malcolm Holdip – reversed a High Court decision in a constitutional challenge by former murder accused Akili Charles.
The Appeal Court ruled that Section 5(1) of the Bail Act of 1994, which previously precluded judicial officers from considering bail for those accused of murder, was unconstitutional and was not saved law. It held that portions of the Bail Act that restricted anyone from applying for bail for murder were not reasonably justifiable in a society concerned about the rights and freedoms of the individual.
The Privy Council’s judgment said: “The Board agrees with the Court of Appeal that there was no prohibition on the grant of bail in murder cases pre or post-committal either under the common law or under the applicable legislation.
“The Attorney General’s appeal on the existing law issue accordingly fails.”
While the Privy Council judges acknowledged it had been the long-established practice of the courts not to grant cases of murder, they said it was "wrongly" assumed that the law already prohibited bail in cases of murder.
"There was no consideration of whether it was necessary or appropriate to introduce such a prohibition. No concern was expressed about the courts’ existing approach to the grant of bail in murder cases.”
Presiding over the appeal at the Privy Council were Lords Hodge, Kitchin, Hamblen, Burrows, and Stephens.
Hamblen, who wrote the decision, said the courts always retained the discretion to grant bail in murder cases and while it was hardly ever done post-committal, there remained a power to do so.
“The Board, therefore, agrees with the Court of Appeal that at common law there was no existing law prohibiting the grant of bail in murder cases either pre or post committal.”
It had been submitted by the State that because a magistrate was not required to inform an accused who had been committed for murder or other non-bailable offences such as treason and piracy – all of which carry the death penalty on conviction – then it was evident that an accused had no right to apply to a judge for bail and a judge had no jurisdiction to grant it.
“The Board rejects these arguments…So, for example, bail should be refused in cases where there are substantial grounds to believe the accused would abscond or commit further offences if released on bail.”
They also held there was no need to extend the unconstitutionality issue to the prohibition on the grant of bail by a magistrate, saying they had no such discretion under the existing law.
In the judgment, the Law Lords recogn
