The Bishop Herro Blair-led effort to secure a state pardon for former Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) Detective Constable Carey Lyn-Sue is a situation fraught with possibilities both positive and negative.

Lyn-Sue is, of course, the former policeman who was recently sentenced to six months in prison for perverting the course of public justice. This was after he confessed to fabricating evidence against a man in a murder case.

Since Lyn-Sue was moved to confess to the crime after he became a Christian, it is understandable that Bishop Blair, whom The Gleaner reported yesterday is supported by a number of pastors, would be moved to intervene. Confession and forgiveness is, after all, a basic tenet of Christianity, much as it is with the justice system.

Of course, in the legal framework, there is a step in between that is often omitted in the Christian process of slate-cleaning - penance.

Of course, there is an imbroglio in that while Lyn-Sue is being punished for a crime, he is also being punished for telling the truth under his then new-found spiritual awareness. If he had not confessed then the matter would probably never have become public. And considering the number of incidents in which Jamaican citizens robustly deny the police's version of events in often fatal encounters between lawmen and those they are sworn to serve and protect, there is the distinct possibility that many more such confessions lie behind sealed lips. So if there is no forgiveness, then any policeman who is moved to break the silence, like Lyn-Sue has, will most likely carry the secret to the grave.

Precedent

However, if there is forgiveness, it would set a precedent that any policeman who has committed a similar or even more serious crime could then rely on to save him from prison time.

There is also the possibility that some members of the force and the public would support Lyn-Sue's actions, arguing that in a situation where witnesses in murder cases often meet a sorry end or simply do not come forward because of fear, such fabrication is often one of the few ways to remove hardened criminals from the streets.

Forgiveness cannot be the only penance for this damning blow to the integrity and credibility of the JCF, an institution already under daily scrutiny from a sometimes doubting public.

In addition, the act of confession cannot be the only thing which puts him on the other side of the prison wall from his colleagues who have been prosecuted and convicted for corrupt actions, especially since the JCF's high-profile anti-corruption drive began earlier this year.

Lyn-Sue should serve his time, of course, with the necessary protection from the general prison population. After all, before his evidence fabrication, confession and sentencing, he did promise most solemnly to serve and protect.

He broke that near sacred promise and should suffer the consequences.

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