Caribbean Justice Systems - The Grapes of Wrath

ArchiveSep 3, 2025

3 min read

Caribbean Justice Systems - The Grapes of Wrath

By Peter Polack

Peter Polack

A recent turn of events in a very old case saw the Holness led Government of Jamaica ordered to pay J$120 million for the unlawful detention of a mentally ill man for 50 years. Some might unfairly assume that Jamaica had the monopoly on rank injustice from this towering example.

They would be wrong.

That title for sheer volume would have to be the UK Post Office scandal that saw a large group of wrongly convicted and penalized workers shuffled past the uncaring eyes of prosecutors and judges before being exposed by an unlikely white knight, the film industry. Many poor souls have experienced a common Caribbean court proceeding, guilty by duress although innocent.

At least it was stopped, for some too late.

Now the persistent silk Jason Beer and his team drive towards those ultimately responsible declaring in words unlikely to be heard in Caribbean courtrooms, the public is the client.

The U.K. has at least two useful mechanisms that seek to halt the profusion of rank injustice for it's citizens unavailable in the Commonwealth of former and present colonies. There is the Criminal Cases Review Commission to investigate potential miscarriages of justice and HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate.

These two bodies would have been an excellent addition to Caribbean justice shortfalls in the Cayman Islands although many other cases have existed elsewhere.

There is the Commonwealth benchmark on prosecutorial excess held by the Cayman Islands and prosecuted by it's present Attorney General of the Randall Privy Council case for which there has never been review or censure.

More of the same.

There is the famous Marius Voiculescu case for alleged possession of a half of a ganja spliff of .004 ounces of ganja that led to a Summary Court trial, two Grand Court hearings and two Cayman Islands Court of Appeal hearings. These required 21 Summary Court hearings, 7 Grand Court hearings and 4 Court of Appeal hearings.

Yes, the same Attorney General since 2003 but he is not alone across the many islands burdened by systems of a colonial past unable to self innovate and ultimately, heal.

There is not only a lack of review of prosecutors but judges as well. The judge in the famous 2011 Cayman Islands case of Swaby saw a young man given 12 years imprisonment for non-existent evidence before going on to become the Chief Justice.

These few examples are the tip of the iceberg across the Caribbean that cry out for real and systemic restorative justice of victims that often include accused persons in criminal and civil proceedings.

Wide and systemic injustice often leads to protests in the street such as recently witnessed in Indonesia. There are many precautions available to give the public a real feeling of justice or even just a fair shake.

Ounce of prevention and all that.

To stand mute is to endorse idiocy.

Peter Polack is a former criminal lawyer in the Cayman Islands for several decades. His books are The Last Hot Battle of the Cold War: South Africa vs. Cuba in the Angolan Civil War (2013), Jamaica, The Land of Film (2017) and Guerrilla Warfare: Kings of Revolution (2019). He was a contributor to Encyclopedia of Warfare (2013). His latest book is a compendium of Russian espionage activities with almost five hundred Soviet spies expelled from nearly 100 countries worldwide 1940-88.

His views published here are his own.

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