FRANK SMITH’S CASE (If He Didn’t Have The Money)

Frank Smith, the former PLP Senator, was acquitted again.  This time it was the Court of Appeal that weighed in on 28^th August 2019  The Court dismissed the Appeal of the Crown and said that the Magistrate was right in her decision to stop the case at the no case stage and dismiss the charges and acquit Mr. Smith.  The Crown got up int the court and said they would appeal.  They were upbraided by one of the Justices who said to them that they had not yet read the Judgement so what was it they were appealing.  The statement that they would appeal was a political one because the FNM now has egg on its face.  They didn’t prove at the Magistrate’s level and they could not show that the magistrate was wrong at the  Appellate level.  They have one problem and that is that they have no right in law to appeal. We are going to see how they get over that one.  The case is an example of prosecutorial abuse and political interference in the Courts.  The Court of Appeal seemed to support the position of the Magistrate Joyann Pratt that there was something egregious when two Cabinet Ministers  Duane Sands and Marvin Dames interfered in the case by prompting the witness and in Dr. Sands case in providing a contract worth 2 million dollars to the virtual complainant in the Frank Smith case just before she went in to  report the bribery allegations to the police. This all smacks of politics.  The question we ask is this: what if this were another defendant and not Frank Smith?  Frank Smith has the resources to pay a sophisticated attorney to deal with this matter in detail. But can you imagine an ordinary defendant without the resources.  That person would get railroaded.  This does not speak well for Bahamian justice at all.