THE unusual murder case in which Devon Paul is charged with murdering a person unknown was called up yesterday for hearing before Justice Franklyn Holder and the jury. When the matter first reached the court some days ago, there were insufficient jurors to hear the matter, since a trial had suddenly ended and the remainder of the jury panel had been told to return to court at a later date.
The judge therefore caused the Acting Registrar to send out the following notice: “All jurors serving in the court of the Honourable Mr. Justice Franklyn Holder are required to attend court on Monday April 23, 2012 at 9.00 a.m., instead of Monday April 30, 2012, as was previously ordered.”
It would appear that notice did not reach all the jurors, as only 21 of those turned up. And because the law requires that a minimum of 30 jurors must be present for a panel to be constituted, the matter had to be postponed yesterday.
The judge will have to get the Registrar to send another notice to the jurors, who would be expected to attend court on that occasion.
Unfortunately, the court did not take the advantage of using 20 jurors of a nearby court, who were sent away after that court had empanelled a set of jurors.
In the past, judges had used such a system with success.