Plea Bargaining Program Launched at the Masaka High Court
Hon. Dr. Justice Yorokamu Bamwine with Hon. Lady Justice M Oguli Right and Hon. Justice A. Rugadya on the left.
The Hon. Principal Judge, Hon. Justice Dr. Yorokamu Bamwine while at the\r\nlaunch of the Plea Bargaining Programme at the Masaka High Court called upon\r\nMasaka residents to embrace the plea bargain system, saying it is the only way\r\nto combat the alarming case backlog. The\r\nProgramme is aimed at reducing the case backlog. Justice Bamwine said by the\r\nend of last year, the backlog of cases awaiting trial was more than 6,500,\r\nwhich he attributed to shortage of High Court judges.
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The Principal Judge disclosed that the government is using a lot of\r\nmoney to maintain prisoners who spend long periods on remand. Hon Justice Dr. Yorokamu Bamwine said\r\nthe government loses at least Shs1 million on each prisoner on remand annually.
\r\nConsequently, he said, the Judiciary introduced the plea bargaining system in\r\norder to cut down such cost as well as reduce congestion in prisons.
\r\nThe Principal Judge and some members of the Judiciary are on a countrywide tour\r\nto popularize the system. Under the new system, the defendant agrees to plead\r\nguilty to a charge in return for a more lenient sentence. He said the new\r\nsystem will also save the convicts from getting diseases common in congested\r\nprisons, save courts time in trying such cases and save the marriages of\r\nprisoners who overstay on remand.
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\r\nHe added that under the system, there are no scenarios of getting a judgment\r\nbased on a judge’s emotions since the sentence is negotiated among three\r\nparties unlike in the old traditional system where it’s only the judge who has\r\nthe discretion to hand out any sentence the judge feels is suitable.
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The Plea bargain programme is a new justice\r\nsystem in which an agreement is entered in a criminal case between the\r\nprosecutor, the accused person and victim whereby the accused agrees to plead\r\nguilty to a particular charge in return for a lesser sentence or charge.
\r\nSo far, the Judiciary the programme has been rolled out in the High Court\r\ncircuits of Nakawa, Mukono, Mbarara and Masaka.
Posted 27th, January 2015
