THE JAMAICAN BAR Association is gearing up for a fight with the Government should Parliament vote to institute minimum sentences for gun crimes.

"I don't agree with it and if they try it, we are going to challenge it in court," president Jacqueline Samuels-Brown told The Sunday Gleaner yesterday.

Among a menu of anti-crime proposals now before Parliament is a consideration to impose a minimum 15-year sentence for firearm offences.

At least two members of parliament have voiced their support for this minimum sentence and several others are expected to line up behind them as the Parliament seeks to implement tougher anti-crime measures.

Strong signals to criminals

Ernest Smith, a government MP who practises at the private bar, told The Sunday Gleaner that whenever the matter of the anti-crime bills comes to the lower House for debate, he would vote for measures that would send strong signals to criminals.

"Anything that has the potential to lead to a reduction in crime, that has the potential to send a message to criminals and potential criminals that Jamaica is serious about ridding itself of criminality, has my support," Smith, MP for South West St Ann, said.

West St Thomas MP James Robertson, who has admitted that he has not yet read the report from the joint select committee on crime, said he is in support of much stiffer penalties for gun crimes.

"People cannot be found with guns and bullets in the quantities that they are being found, like in recent times, and be getting away with some light sentences. It can't work," Robertson told The Sunday Gleaner.

In serious times

Asked whether he believes the imposition of minimum sentences could amount to tying the hands of the judge, Robertson said, "That is going to be a concern, but we are in serious times."

Last week, Ricardo 'Bully' Thomas, the alleged leader of a gang in c**kburn Gardens, Kingston 11, was sentenced to three years' probation and fined a million dollars for gun and ammunition possession.

Thomas was arrested in October at his house after police conducted an operation at the premises and found two 9-mm pistols with 49 rounds of ammunition.

Thomas admitted the guns belonged to him and pleaded guilty to the charges.

Samuels-Brown, who defended Thomas, said there are always extenuating circumstances which cause judges to decide not to impose custodial sentences.

"What the judge did was quite in line with what happens in cases of that kind," Samuels-Brown said.

Documentary evidence

The attorney furnished The Sunday Gleaner with documentary evidence of Gun Court verdicts which supported her claim that many persons convicted of gun offences do not end up in prison.

Of 45 firearm and ammunition offences in the Gun Court in the one-year period starting March 2001, 15 of the persons convicted were given non-custodial sentences.

According to Samuels-Brown, where a person admits to his guilt from the time of arrest, acknowledges his wrongdoing and pleads guilty in court, and has no previous conviction or charges against him, it is a factor that courts must take into account in determining sentences.

In Thomas' case, Samuels-Brown said the judge had evidence before him that Thomas had received many threats and reports had been made to the police.

Did the wrong thing

She added that the court recognised that he did the wrong thing by taking the law into his hands and not reposing total confidence in law-enforcement agencies.

According to Samuels-Brown, the judge did not err by not sending the alleged gang leader to prison.

Highly placed Government sources told The Sunday Gleaner that a senior police officer testified on Thomas' behalf before he was sentenced in the Gun Court.

"This case illustrates why mandatory sentences will not suit every case," Samuels-Brown said.