What really annoys me, being a law student, is when people who try and bring our judicial system into disrepute, without actually understaning the part of the system their complaining about!
I heard someone the other day comment how she was annoyed that someone was in the jail and not getting punished, it later transpired that this person was being held on remand pending trial!
Remand is not a punishment! This person has not yet been found guilty of a crime if they are being held on remand and as such the principle of “innocence until guilt is proven” applies. This principle is one that is enshrined in our legal system (this is why the crown has responsibility for proving that a person committed a crime and the accused need prove nothing). The day we remove this principle opens the system up to serious abuses.
While on remand the accused will get privileges that others in the prison population do not and are generally held separately from the general prison population.
Yes, remand is a temporary measure. This is because a person on remand is still legally innocent. The law protects the accused from a protracted period on remand in custody by stating that a trial must commence before 110 days have expired after the accused has been fully committed and remanded in custody. Extensions to the aforementioned timescale can be sought by the Prosecutor through application to a Judge of the High Court but such applications are rare and would need to justify sufficient cause.
That's my rant over for today. However, I intend to post a blog on the subject of "Torture" (mainly in regard as to why introducing it would be one of the worst reforms of the Legal System in a long time) in the next few days!
