The Public Defenders Division, one of many three useful divisions of the Authorized Assist Fee, was in a position to resolve solely 323 out of the 1,518 legal circumstances it obtained between January 2023 and July this 12 months.
That is as a result of scarcity of attorneys (public defenders) out there to assist the work of the division charged with the mandate of representing accused individuals who can’t afford the companies of a lawyer.
Presently, there are solely 34 attorneys who act as public defenders nationwide, considerably affecting the division’s potential to deal with the excessive quantity of legal circumstances.
Out of those, solely 12 concentrate on legal circumstances and are concentrated within the Larger Accra, Ashanti, and Western/ Western North areas, leaving some areas with none authorized assist.
The scarcity, due to this fact, places immense stress on the few attorneys who should cowl a number of border areas.
For instance, within the three areas of the north (previously Northern Area), there are solely two attorneys answerable for legal circumstances, one in every of whom is due for retirement this 12 months.
Public Defender
A public defender is a lawyer often holding public workplace, who’s appointed to defend accused individuals who’re poor and unable to rent a lawyer of their selection.
Their work is to, in any respect phases of the legal process, signify indigent legal offenders such because the poor and weak, girls, juveniles, remand prisoners, and individuals with incapacity who come into battle with the legislation.
A public defender represents such individuals throughout pre-trial proceedings proper from the time of arrest as much as trial and past on enchantment.
In January final 12 months, a case monitored on the Accra Circuit Court docket highlighted the impression of the unavailability of a public defender on the rights of accused individuals.
The then accused, Dauda Mohammed Nazir’s destiny of presumably serving a minimal jail time period of 10 years was saved on January 25, 2023, by the intervention of a lawyer.
Incident
Nazir had pleaded responsible to the depend of participating in violent actions at an election occasion held in Cape Coast, when he first appeared on the Accra Circuit Court docket presided over by Samuel Shiny Acquah on January 10, 2023, with out authorized illustration.
Nazir, who speaks Hausa, had been charged alongside two others.
He was the one accused individual whose plea was taken on January 10, 2023, within the decide’s chambers as a result of he supposedly agreed for his prices to be learn in English, whereas the plea of the opposite accused individuals was postponed as a result of they most popular their prices to be learn of their native dialect as an alternative of English.
On the time Nazir pleaded responsible to the vigilante prices, he had no authorized illustration.
It was solely on January 25, 2023, a day put aside for judgment, that Nazir made an look in court docket with a lawyer.
The lawyer, Beatrice Annangfio, who contested the sentencing of her consumer, argued that her consumer didn’t totally perceive what it meant to plead responsible to the offence, including that the court docket clerk, who was not a licensed interpreter, didn’t talk to the understanding of the accused whose native language was Hausa.
After a compelling case by the lawyer, the court docket halted the sentencing of the accused individual.
“On this case, I’ll permit the plea of the convict to be retaken,” Mr Acquah stated, saving Nazir from presumably serving a minimal of 10 years on the fees.
Influence
Talking on the impression of the scarcity on the PDD’s work, the Director of the PDD, Nelson M. Kporha, additionally recounted the story of a younger man who had engaged the companies of a industrial motor rider to a vacation spot.
The accused individual, Ibrahim Amin, begged the sufferer, the motor rider, to present him a elevate from Ekorso to Abomosu on February 4, 2021. On reaching a piece of the highway between Ekorso and Abomosu, the accused ordered the sufferer to cease and get off the motorcycle.
The accused then took off with the motorcycle by Asonafo to the Kumasi-Accra freeway, however was arrested along with the motorcycle at New Jejeti and delivered to the Kwabeng Police Station.
After investigation, the accused was charged with the offence of theft and arraigned earlier than the Circuit Court docket at Anyinam, with no lawyer.
He merely pleaded responsible to the cost of theft and was sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment. The cost was learn in Twi to the accused individual, who’s a Mamprussi.
On an enchantment referred to the PDD’s workplace in Accra, the Excessive Court docket agreed with Mr Kporha, additionally a public defender, that the info didn’t assist the offence of theft.
Accordingly, the conviction and sentence on the cost of theft have been put aside, substituted with stealing, and he was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment.
Rights
Article 19 of the 1992 Structure ensures a person’s proper to a good trial.
Underneath Article 19 (2)(d), the Structure provides an individual charged with a legal offence the chance to be told instantly in a language that he understands, and intimately, of the character of the offence charged.
This was not performed within the case of Nazir and Amin, making their probabilities of successfully defending themselves very bleak.
The Authorized Assist Fee Act of 2018 (Act 977) was handed and assented to by the President on September 13, 2018.
The Act establishes Authorized Assist as a Fee and creates PDD as one in every of its three main divisions. The others are the Residents Advisory Division and the Different Dispute Decision Division (ADR).
The PDD exists to help individuals in want of authorized help in realising the correct of equality earlier than the legislation and for a good trial.
Amongst its features is to behave as a Public Defender for the realisation of Article 14 (Safety of private liberty), Article 17 (Equality and Freedom from discrimination) and Article 19 (Honest trial) below the 1992 Structure.
Public defenders additionally make sure that an individual who’s arrested, restricted, detained or accused of an offence is afforded the suitable authorized help.
Non-public authorized practitioners, who’re in a position to defend accused individuals all through the trial, are entitled to a fee of 20 per cent of the GBA scale of charges upon profitable completion of the case.
Plea
Mr Kporha appealed to the federal government to present the division clearance to recruit an extra 50 attorneys to assist the PDD to discharge its mandate successfully.
“A lot of the circumstances that go to court docket and typically find yourself in conviction, you’ll realise that if the individual had been correctly suggested, the case wouldn’t have gone to court docket within the first place, and that’s the reason we want extra attorneys to help these accused individuals from the purpose of arrest,” he stated.
He additional defined that within the case of the three northern areas, it was humanly unimaginable for the attorneys to defend the accused individuals successfully as a result of the 2 attorneys out there dealt with civil circumstances alongside legal circumstances.
“Legal defence is a particular area by itself; you’re speaking in regards to the liberty of the person so you want to put in your most finest in order that their liberty just isn’t denied,” he stated.