By Mama A. Touray
With support from the United States government, Judges and Magistrates in Gambia have been trained on sentencing guidelines during a training section held at the Ocean Bay Hotel, Bakau.
Speaking at the training, Chief Justice Hassan B Jallow said “It is good that lawyers are trained on sentencing in a very judicious manner and make sure we take to account relevant considerations and facts and leave out the relevant factors and it is good for us to have guidelines to objectivity and consistency in the process.”
He thanked the US and CMJA for the support and hope that the support continued as the subject of the training is critical which is sentencing and is a very critical part of criminal justice process.
“It is one of the things that interest not only lawyers but obviously the victims are interested in and the court will try to bring justice to those who are the accuse, the convict is usually very interested because the consequences can be very harsh for him or her but also the public perhaps follows sentencing more than any part of the process, they keep an eye on the kind of sentences mating out and they make comparisons”
Justice Robin Knowles CBE, Judiciary of England and Wale also said: “as we began this training, this project has been here for four years ago and we continue this despite the pandemic and it continue beyond this week,” and that they will deal with sentencing guidelines against criminal cases and secondly the development of courts and that is very timely.
“We have experience in sentencing so they will be trained so that they can help judiciary sentencing as consistence as it could be and they can help everybody in public to understand more of the sentencing process, it is important for the defendants’, victims and the public at large,” he added.
According to him, he said there is a lot for them to learn together especially as our concern increase on relationship, environment and climate change and the courts help in ensuring their experience inform the secret relationship.
He said: “we will start by looking at safety guidance and guidelines for assault, the reason we are starting with that is because that is where they we will look at more difficult areas at sentencing later in the week. This are valuable but they also help into a side of using guidelines in future in other areas.”
Her lordship Isatou Dabo, Principal Magistrate, Brikama Magistrate Court also said it is important to have consistency across the border. Adding that Magistrates across are undergoing this training to be able to serve the public interest as the dispensation of justice is very broad.