3.4 The author further claims that he did not have adequate opportunities to
consult with his lawyers, since they never visited him during pre-trial
detention and his letters addressed to them remained unanswered; his wife
visited their offices on several occasions, but all she obtained was a promise
that they would contact him. He adds that he informed one of his lawyers
about what he considered to have been unfair in the conduct of the trial and
the preliminary inquiry, and notes that the lawyer promised to inform his
colleague(s), but failed to do so. One of his representatives cross-examined
prosecution witnesses during the trial; the author alleges, however, that the
trial judge ruled many of the questions posed by the lawyer inadmissible or
sustained the prosecution's objections to some of them. Only one witness
sought to testify on his behalf; according to the author, this witness had
been heard as a prosecution witness during the preliminary inquiry, when his
testimony had been rejected.
3.5 Finally, the author submits that the investigating officer, an activist
for the Jamaican Labour Party (JLP) who was not called as a witness during the
trial, received a bribe from the Member of Parliament for St. Thomas to
continue the investigation. The author surmises that the officer did not
attend court because he did not want to be seen by the other witnesses, who
had also been promised a share of the bribe, which he had not passed on. In
the same context, the author contends that the case against him was widely
publicized by the Member of Parliament, the Police Commissioner and other
individuals, with the resulting prejudicial impact on the potential members of
the jury.
State party's information and observations
4.1 By submission of 17 November 1988, the State party submitted that the
communication was inadmissible on the ground of non-exhaustion of domestic
remedies, because of the author's failure to petition the Judicial Committee
of the Privy Council for special leave to appeal. By further submission of
8 May and 26 September 1990, made after the adoption of the Committee's
decision on admissibility, the State party contended that the communication
remained inadmissible since the author had not availed himself of
constitutional remedies, pursuant to section 25 of the Jamaican Constitution.
Any decision, of the Supreme (Constitutional) Court could be appealed to the
Court of Appeal of Jamaica and from there to the Judicial Committee of the
Privy Council.
4.2 The State party argues that many of the facts presented by the author, in
particular in so far as they relate to legal representation and counsel's
failure to cross-examine witnesses, do not point to any responsibility of the
State party's judicial authorities. Additionally, and with reference to
recent decisions of the Human Rights Committee, the State party observes that
the facts as presented merely seek to raise issues of evaluation of evidence
in the case, which the Committee is not competent to examine, a/
4.3 The State party further points to section 24, paragraph 2, of the
Constitution, which provides that no person shall be treated in a
discriminatory manner by any person acting in accordance with any written law
or in performance of the function of any public office or any public
authority. Subsection 3 defines as "discriminatory" the different treatment
of persons based wholly or mainly on their respective attributes, e.g.,
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