President of The Bahamas Bar Association (allegedly corrupt attorney) Wayne Munroe insisted Thursday that Magistrate Linda Virgill was not being “punished” by being relieved of her exclusive duties as coroner.
Mr. Munroe also told The Bahama Journal that in making his decision to share the coronerﾒs duties among all magistrates, (Allegedly corrupt) Chief Justice Sir Burton Hall did not “strip anybody of anything”.
Sir Burton’s memorandum revealing that decision came less than a week after Mrs. Virgill announced that she would hold an inquest into the unexplained death of 20-year-old Daniel Wayne Smith, son of American celebrity Anna Nicole Smith who died at Doctors Hospital on September 10.
(Allegedly corrupt) Chief Magistrate Roger Gomez said on Wednesday that even if there is an inquest into Smithﾒs death ﾖ and there in fact may not be ﾖ Magistrate Virgill would not be the one to hear it.
Mr. Munroe pointed out, “Every single magistrate can do [the work of the coroner]. In fact, if you look at the out island administrators, [they] can also do that. What has happened and what the Chief Justice has done, isnﾒt to strip anybody of anything,.”
“I have no doubt that she will do further inquests as will every other magistrate as it used to happen before [1993].”
Mr. Munroe explained that over the last 12 to 18 months the Judicial Review Commission, which he is a member of, reviewed the promotion of local magistrates to other areas of the judicial system. He added that if magistrates were “stuck” in the same position for a number of years their chances for promotion might not be considered.
“So it was not in their interest to be stuck doing the same thing over and over again,” he said.
On Wednesday, a memo sent from Sir Burton addressed “to all Stipendiary and Circuit Magistrates” and titled “Matters arising under the Coronerﾒs Act, Chapter 56,” stated that “it is notified that with immediate effect the practice that was instituted in 1993 of designating a particular magistrates court as the Coronerﾒs Court will be discontinued.”
As Mr. Munroe sees it, Magistrate Virgill is being given the opportunity to consider different options within the judiciary system. Magistrate Virgill meanwhile declined comment on the matter on Thursday.
Mr. Munroe pointed out that the country had one court that dealt with drug matters for many years. However, he explained that an additional court has been established to also handle drug matters.
In this respect, he said “nobody has suggested that it is doing anything to the magistrate and court where previously all drug matters went.”
“That magistrate now has other types of matters directed to her as far as I understand, so nobody can complain that our magistrates are one dimensional,” he said.
In similar instances, he explained that magistrates who handled juvenile and domestic matters were also reassigned other court matters, but these actions were not considered punishment for the magistrates in question.
“They were being given the opportunity to deal with a broader variety of cases in their own interest,” he said.
Mr. Munroe added that magistrates are able to handle general criminal work and general civil work within the court system.
He said the “administrative powers” would consider whether to remove a magistrate from his or her general duties to assist in the quick processing of these type cases.
Mr. Munroeﾒs statement came as discussions about the coronerﾒs court policy change continued in various circles.
On Wednesday evening, the FNM blasted the move saying it was “deeply disturbed” by the decision.
The FNM said that prior to 1993 there was an enormous backlog of unexplained deaths awaiting the attention of magistrates throughout The Bahamas who were already far too busy performing their normal functions to take any extra time to investigate unexplained deaths.
Party Leader and former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham vowed that if the FNM is re-elected, it would cause the Coroners Act to be changed to provide for specialty coronerﾒs courts.
By: Perry Scavella, The Bahama Journal
