Wolfe
THE EDITOR, Madam:
I HAVE been reading and listening to the attempts of the present chief justice to raise the quality of justice for the Jamaican people to a principled level of jurisprudence so that Jamaicans can be assured that their dignity, self-respect and the national good can be actualised.
Unfortunately, the exercise faces three basic problems:
1) The Jamaican legal culture was never designed to give justice to the poor and the marginalised, but to particular classes. A man who picked mangoes was sentenced to prison for nine months and two people who embezzled a certain bank of $27 million were also sent to prison for nine months.
A recent decision by the Privy Council suggests to me that if I killed my wife and admitted that I was under the influence of cocaine, my life will be spared. Would a Rastafari-an be given the same treatment if it was marijuana?
Class consciousness continues to create havoc in this country and sometimes you are caught in the trap without knowing that you are trapped.
2) From a theological premise, and using St. Paul's argument, law does not save or redeem people, but points to the sin and outlines the punishment. My Christian upbringing tells me that it is grace that redeems me not law. Everytime Justice Wolfe attempts to give the law a HUMAN face and cements it within the context of the health of the community, he is going to have a problem. The reason being is that Jamaican law is not based on grace.
3) Law is not coterminous with justice and so the present chief justice will always think differently, because it is obvious that he is concerned about justice for the Jamaican people which runs counter to the legal culture we have inherited.
I am, etc.,
REV. ERNLE GORDON
St. Mary's Rectory
5 Cowper Drive
Kingston 20
e-mail: gordfm@yahoo.com
