The Court of Appeal (Amendment) Bill 2008 was yesterday described as a ‘recipe for disaster’ by Alliance for Change, Member of Parliament, Khemraj Ramjattan, when the Bill was debated in the National Assembly.Attorney General, Doodnauth Singh, presented the Bill, which did not capture the support of the opposition parties.However, the PNCR has indicated its willingness to salvage the legislation,Arsenal Jersey, through its member, Clarissa Reihl, who stated yesterday that the party is prepared to discuss the Bill and make further changes.The Bill is seeking to provide for appeals by the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) to the Court of Appeal and to the Caribbean Court of Justice for connected matters.This will also give the DPP the power to appeal any acquittal by judges in the High Court.Addressing the National Assembly last evening, Khemraj Ramjattan said that the amendment,Klaas-Jan Huntelaar Jersey, which the government has introduced as part of continuing its criminal justice reform, ‘will only add to that mess.’“This government feels that its only obligation is to legislate because that mandate has been granted to (it). It fails to appreciate the other obligation it has– to pass laws which must improve the lives of its citizens.”This amendment,Daryl Janmaat Netherland Jersey, he added, will not improve the lives of citizens.“The lot of the accused will be made more horrifying and horrible and so too the lot of all those who are involved in the trial process: witnesses, police,Fernando Gago Jersey, juries and even Judges…the entire system.”Ramjattan pointed out to the National Assembly that the acquittal rates at present are ‘quite soaring’ but that is not due to the fact that the State does not have a right of appeal.“Now with this amendment the State will be given that right to appeal. It would be foolhardy to conclude that there will be more convictions and less acquittals.”More convictions, the AFC member said, will only happen when there is an improved quality of investigation of crime and a high quality of prosecution.Both these phases require a sustained effort at training the personnel, keeping abreast with the advances of technologies, having advocates at the trial process, who apart from articulating in a manner to convince a jury must also be sharp enough to counter the blocks of any good defense counsel, he added.“Improving and strengthening the policemen, prosecutors and prison would realise what this government should strive for and what the citizens want: a fair criminal justice system.”What was presented to Parliament yesterday, he added, are several ‘dangerous themes’ running through the legislation,Clement Simonin Jersey, which must give cause for concern.“In a 100 or more years of the common law jurisprudence the settled situation, the bedrock foundation of our criminal justice system, has been that a jury’s verdict of acquittal represented the limit of the power of the State to impose punishment upon a citizen.”He said that when the jury says ‘you are acquitted’ that was the limit.“No matter what wrong the prosecutors and the State might have felt occurred during the course of action, those words ‘jury acquittal’ was the limit.”This, Ramjattan said, was the ‘perfect’ balance and counter balance between the powers and resources of the State and the relative weakness of the individual within a democratic state.Clarissa Reihl,Sebastian Giovinco Toronto Shirts, in her presentation to the National Assembly, told the House that the answer to rampant criminality is not to tighten the screws against the few who are caught by bringing ‘onerous’ and ‘oppressing’ legislation but by widening the net.“This can be done by enhancing police investigative skill, employ and maintain a core of competent prosecutors and appoint strong judges.?She urged that political interference should be ceased at all levels of the criminal justice system.”The DPP, she added, is a powerful functionary in the Criminal Judicial System. “She has the dominion over all criminal cases in Guyana. She makes decisions to prosecute or not to prosecute and to vest her now with the right of appeal on acquittals in the High Court is to make her all powerful,” Reihl added.On the other side of the House, Anil Nandlall told the National Assembly that under the present law, when an accused person stands trial for a criminal offence before the High Court of Guyana, that vital component of the rule of law and the const