Gun Court
The long sentences of the Gun Court and its restrictions on the rights of the accused have given rise to constitutional challenges, some of which have been appealed to the Privy Council in London.
The Suppression of Crime Act allowed the police and the military to work together in a novel way to disarm the people: soldiers sealed off entire neighbourhoods, and policemen systematically searched the houses inside for weapons without requiring a warrant.
[3] The goal was to expedite and improve enforcement of the 1967 Firearms Act,[4] which imposed licensing requirements on ownership and possession of guns and ammunition,[5] and prohibited automatic weapons entirely.
[6] Firearm licences in Jamaica require a background check, inspection and payment of a yearly fee, and can make legal gun ownership difficult for ordinary citizens.
[3] Prime Minister Michael Manley expressed his determination to take stronger action against firearms, predicting that "It will be a long war.
Most trials were to be conducted in camera, without a jury and closed to the public and the press, in order to avoid problems of intimidation of witnesses and jurors.
Four men, Moses Hinds, Henry Martin, Elkanah Hutchinson, and Samuel Thomas, had been arrested and convicted by the Gun Court in 1974 for possession of firearms and ammunition without a licence.
[11][12] The Privy Council also found that the institution of an appointed review board to determine the length of sentences was contrary to the doctrine of separation of powers fundamental to the Westminster system of government.
The court noted that the written Constitution adopted by Jamaica upon independence guaranteed certain rights to criminal defendants, but omitted trial by jury.
When he was again arrested on the same firearms charges, he filed suit arguing that the Gun Court had violated his constitutional rights through unreasonable delay.
The Privy Council agreed, ruling that even when prevailing local standards were taken into account, Bell's trial had been excessively delayed through no fault of his own.
The Gun Court Prison was defended by guard towers and barbed wire, earning it the nickname of "Jamaica's Stalag 17",[3] and the walls were painted bright red "to show that it [is] dread".
The prison itself remains in operation as the South Camp Adult Correctional Centre,[19] housing inmates convicted by the Gun Court.
According to a report in the Virgin Islands Daily News, the Association's Bar Council objected to the possibility that children as young as 12 could be imprisoned for life, without release or appeal, for small offences such as being found with used ammunition.
[21] The abrogation of jury trial has also been criticized by attorney and law professor David Rowe, the son of the Appeals Court justice who wrote the decision in the Stone case upholding the practice.
[22] The Canadian Bar Association's Jamaican Justice System Reform Task Force, in its preliminary recommendations, noted that the Gun Court is overloaded, that defendants are not well represented, and Crown attorneys are often inexperienced.
[15] Senior Resident Magistrate Glenn Brown expressed dissatisfaction with the public prosecutors for taking too long to prepare cases, often because of difficulty in finding and bringing witnesses.
"[25] John R. Lott has argued that "gun-control laws have failed to deliver as promised", noting that the murder rate in Jamaica was lower before the introduction of stricter gun control: it rose from 11.5 to 19.5 per 100,000 between 1973 and 1977, and reached 41.7 per 100,000 in 1980.
The Jamaican dancehall artist Agent Sasco released a song called "Banks of the Hope" in 2018 where he mentioned "Gun Court".
