Proposed law disqualifies judges from plea bargain deals

    
The Administration of Criminal Justice Bill, 2013, which has been passed by the House of Representatives, exempted magistrates and judges from participating in plea bargain arrangements.
This was disclosed in a summary document of the proposed law, which was presented on Thursday at a media briefing organised by the Panel on Justice Reform alongside a non-governmental organisation, Justice for All, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes, and the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies.
Among other objectives, the ACJ Bill, 2013 intends to regulate the implementation of plea bargain in the prosecution of corruption cases in the country.
The bill is one of the proposed justice sector reforms laws that are pending before the National Assembly.
In an address at the event, the Convener of the Technical Working Group of the Panel on Justice Reform, Prof. Yemi Akinseye-George, SAN, explained that among other features, ACJ Bill 2013 contains regulatory guidelines that would prevent abuses in plea bargain.
A summary document of the proposals for the Reform of Administration of Criminal Justice, which formed the ACJ Bill, 2013, disclosed that “the presiding judge or the magistrate is not permitted to be part of the discussions” leading to a plea bargain agreement.
Also, a prosecutor can only enter into plea bargain agreement after due consultations with investigators and other stakeholders in the criminal case.
“The ACJ Bill provides that the prosecutor can only enter into a plea or sentence agreement after consultation with the investigating police officer, and the victim or his representative, with due regard to the nature and circumstances relating to the offence, the defendant and public interest,” the document said.
The proposed law also stipulated that plea bargain agreements must be in writing, and must be signed.
However, while the ACJ Bill, 2013, exempted magistrates and judges from participating in plea bargain arrangements, the proposed law empowered the judicial officers to still go ahead to impose sentences that are different from the ones agreed upon in plea bargain agreements.
Such sentences could be lesser, or heavier, than the penalty agreed on in the plea bargain agreement.
But the document also explained that “where presiding judge or magistrate is of the view that the offence requires a heavier sentence than the one agreed, he is to inform the defendant of his view.”
Once informed of the court’s decision to pass a heavier sentence, the accused person is entitled to withdraw his guilty plea, or abide by the confession and accept the stiffer punishment.
Should the accused person opt to withdraw the guilty plea upon which the plea bargain agreement was entered, the trial will proceed afresh before another presiding judge or magistrate.
The document noted that “the provision which allows the judge or magistrate to decline to be bound by sentence agreed to by the prosecutor and the defendant is a safeguard for situations where public sensibility may be offended by the sentence entered.”
The move to regulate perceived abuse in the implementation of plea bargain in the provisions of ACJ Bill, 2013, was informed by the controversy generated by previous plea bargain arrangements in the country, particularly in the case of a pension thief, John Yakubu, who was given an option of N750,000 fine after admitting to have connived with others to steal N23bn while serving as a director in the Police Pension Commission.
The Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Justice, Ali Ahmad, in an address an the media briefing, expressed hopes that the Senate will pass the ACJ Bill, 2013, in no distant time.
He noted that the Bill had introduced several innovative measures that would significantly improve the delivery of criminal justice in the country, including central criminal records registry system, restorative justice measures, non-custodial sentences including community sentence orders and probation, mandatory guidelines for carrying out specific tasks by prosecutors and other operators in the system, as well as accountability and mechanisms for monitoring and reducing prison congestion