By Staff Writer
ROSEAU, Dominica, Sept 29, CMC – The Dominica government has announced the appointment of Trinidad-based Senior Counsel, Keith Scotland, as a special prosecutor, in a move aimed at improving the administration of justice and ensuring cases are dealt with more efficiently.
National Security and Legal Affairs Minister, Rayburn Blackmoore, said greater cooperation between police investigators and prosecutors from the beginning of an investigation should help reduce delays and improve the preparation of cases.
“We have made tremendous improvement over the last months in several cases we have been able to dispose of, especially as it relates to indictable offences, serious cases, murders and high-profile drug-related matters.
“So the government has actually engaged a special prosecutor in the person of Senior Counsel Keith Scotland, and he will be assigned to the DPP’s office and will ensure that the cases will be dealt with in a timely fashion”.
He said this is critical in ensuring that the rule of law is upheld “by ensuring that guilty people are held accountable but at the same time ensuring that the innocent can be protected against wrongful conviction.
“That is also key. So what we’re hoping is to have this kind of seamless cooperation between the police investigators and the prosecution team from the start of the investigation, in the collection of evidence, and the preparation of the case, and before it gets to the court.
“We are striving as a ministry to ensure that from the time that charges are pursued against an abuser or suspect, especially as it relates to indictable matters, that the case should be ready and should be before at least the Supreme Court within six months. “
But Blackmoore said that “ all those things help to ensure that we have timely disposal of cases and therefore the issue of investigation and prosecution have to work together to ensure that all the impediments to the case can be dealt with going forward”.
He said effective prosecution does not always mean seeking conviction.
“As I just said, you have to have a system in place to ensure that the innocent is not wrongly convicted and that’s what I’m hoping that we’ll be engaged in the training of the other prosecutors and, of course, police officers going forward,” he said.
In July, Scotland headed the prosecution of two American nationals who were found guilty of the murders of a Canadian businessman and his partner whose bodies were found in a burnt-out vehicle on December 1, 2023.
Jonathan Lehrer, 58, and 63-year-old Robert Snider Jr. were found guilty of the murders of animation pioneer and Canadian philanthropist Daniel Langlois and his 58-year-old longtime partner, Dominique Marchand.
The prosecution had alleged that between November 29 and December 2, 2023, the two Americans murdered Langlois, the Echo Resort owner and former software innovator and founder of Softimage, and Marchand, whose bodies were found incinerated in a car near Gallion, in the south of the island. Langlois and Marchand had been reported missing for several days.
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