By Roxaine Smith,
Norman Manley Law School
In the CCJ case Frank Gibson v The Attorney General [2010] CCJ 3 (AJ) the CCJ clarified the full meaning of what is a fair trial. The Court decided that a person accused of crime had a right to State-funded assistance of an expert that would serve to help him present his defence in his trial.
The accused, Mr Gibson, was arrested in January 2002 on a charge of murdering a woman. The prosecution alleged that an injury on his arm was a human bite-mark and that the victim was the only person who could have inflicted it. These findings were the only evidence linking Mr Gibson to the murder. Mr Gibson claimed that in order to refute this allegation he had a constitutional right to be provided with adequate “facilities” to conduct his defence and provision of an expert in human bite-marks was such a “facility”. He asked the Court to order the State to provide him with funds adequate to secure the assistance of such an expert.
The Court of Appeal of held that Mr Gibson had no constitutional right to
