There are things that can be labelled as confusion, misunderstandings or mis-statements… and then there are, well, lies.
The Nassau Guardian has caught Atttorney General John Delaney apparently attempting to mislead the Bahamian public on conviction statistics.
During his recent budget contribution in the Senate, Attorney General John Delaney passionately defended his office against charges of incompetent prosecution by stating that there were 12 convictions for murderin the past year as a result of his newly introduced initiatives in the Department of Public Prosecution.
The eagle-eyed reporters at the Nassau Guardian didn’t think that sounded right.
They were correct.
In his presentation to the Senate, Delaney said the Supreme Court had disposed of 72 previously pending criminal cases. He claimed there were 51 convictions, nine acquittals and 12 discontinuances.
According to Mr Delaney, l2 convictions were for or murder, four for rape, and seven for armed robbery or attempted armed robbery.
Upon examination, it was revealed that several of the so-called murder convictions actually took place in 2010, not 2011. Also, several of the convictions were for manslaughter, not murder.
Furthermore, Mr Delaney included incomplete cases in his figures.
Sadly, I can not link directly to the full article as the Guardian has copied the Tribune’s ridiculous habit of not posting the news until after the time most people want to read it.
