Dialing on the significance of the workshop, the Master and Registrar, Steven Yayah Mansaray disclosed that the workshop catalogued valuables and very educative thematic areas which the jurors stand to benefit immensely and at the same time, capacitate and broaden their horizons in the discharge of their constitutional functions.
The Master and Registrar further intimated that before now relatives, loves ones and litigants used to grumble and fell treated unjustly by the court, due to the prolong adjournment of murder trials processes and the total commitment of jurors until the matter is determine by court.
He noted that his institution is well prepared to provide the required training facilities, occupational security and the necessary encouragements to jurors in carrying out their functions effectively and efficiently.
He added that the new strategy and programmes mapped out by the judiciary targeted jurors, magistrates and judicial staff for them to look at the core issues, and redesigning result-oriented mechanisms aimed at fast tracking murder cases against accused persons, as justice is not only meant for litigants, but also the accused.
Steven Yayah Mansaray stated that before now, people harbored the negative perception that juror’s work is time consuming and it is a completely waste of their precious time, failing to realized that it is part of the country’s law books that juror should form an integral part of a murder trail process within the jurisdiction of Sierra Leone.
H e expressed optimism that, the workshop will adequately address the monumental challenges facing jurors and the need for them to consolidate and praticalize punctuality, do a rigorous follow-up of all murder cases assigned they are assigned to provide auxiliary judicial service to, until such a matters is determined by the court, and also ensure that jurors dispensed their functions without fair or favor.
The Master and Registrar assured the litigants and the people of this country that though the judiciary is faced with a lot of challenges, his institution will not relent in designing core administrative programmes intended to restoring trust and confidence and further rebranding the Sierra Leone judicial system with a special reference to murder trials.
