Godfred Yeboah Dame
The Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Godfred Yeboah Dame, last Friday laid a new bill to amend parts of the criminal law to accommodate plea bargain in the administration of criminal justice and for other related matters.
The Criminal and Other Offences (Procedure) (Amendment) Bill, 2021, was subsequently referred to the Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs chaired by the First Deputy Speaker, Joseph Osei-Wusu, for consideration and report.
The bill, when passed, will amend the Criminal and Other Offences (Procedure) Act 1960 (Act 30) and provide for an agreement in criminal law proceedings, whereby the prosecutor provides a concession to the defendant in exchange for a plea of guilt or nolo contendere.
This may mean that the defendant will plead guilty to a less serious charge or to one of the several charges, in return for the dismissal of other charges; or it may mean that the defendant will plead guilty to the original criminal charge in return for a more lenient sentence.
Recent Pledge
The Attorney General at a recent engagement promised to introduce two important pieces of legislations namely Plea Bargaining and Alternative Sentencing, as part of the measures to decongest the prisons and also ensure proper reformation of inmates.
“My Office is seeking to introduce two important pieces of legislation which will have far-reaching consequences for the criminal justice system,” he had said, adding “the first is an amendment to the Criminal Procedure Act, 1960 (Act 30) to incorporate plea bargaining firmly into the trial of cases and by this amendment to the Criminal Procedure Act, plea bargaining will be permissible in all cases save a few that will be set out in the Act.”
The AG said cabinet granted approval to his request for the policy and the bill for the amendment of the Criminal Procedure Act to incorporate plea bargaining and said he was consulting the Minister of the Interior on the exceptions to plea bargaining.
The AG said serious crimes like treason, violent offences like rape, genocide, robbery, kidnapping, murder, attempted murder, abduction, defilement, piracy and offences related to public elections were excluded from plea bargaining.
“Apart from these offences, plea bargaining will be available in all other cases. I consider the introduction of plea bargaining the most significant innovation in the process of reform of the criminal justice system in Ghana, which has the ultimate object of easing congestion in our prisons,” he said.
The AG said “it is worthy to state that in order to safeguard against abuses, plea bargaining will be done only with the consent of the Attorney General in line with his constitutional mandate under Article 88 and will be done under strict conditions set out in the proposed bill.”
By Ernest Kofi Adu