Director of Public Prosecutions Urges Implementation of Sentencing Guidelines

Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Donna Babb-Agard SC says sentencing guidelines are “long overdue”.

“In as much as certain courts approach sentencing differently, that is exactly why we need sentencing guidelines. I don’t want to say how long we have been waiting for them, but it is long overdue,” she said on Wednesday as the State made a slight adjustment on how much of an early plea discount Sean Watson should receive after confessing to killing his estranged wife.

In making sentencing submissions last month before Justice Randall Worrell, the DPP offered Watson a one-sixth early plea discount, half what is usually offered to accused who plead guilty before trial. The judge had requested that the DPP and defence attorney Bryan Weekes make further submissions regarding the State’s stance along with submissions regarding delay.

On Wednesday, the DPP changed the discount for Watson’s early admission of guilt to one-fifth.

“Even though we concede that we start at a maximum deduction of one-third, the State is not going to accept that applies to this case. I know the last time we were before this court, I had suggested one-sixth, and this honourable court challenged both of us to see if we could come up with a calculation to assist this court in the sentencing. Having read over the authorities, I am going to concede that a fifth is more appropriate in the circumstances as indicated by your lordship. We are only prepared on behalf of the State to consider a fifth reduction in relation to the guilty plea,” Babb-Agard told the court.

She highlighted that the defence had made several challenges before the guilty plea was made, one in particular which contributed to the delay in the trial. The DPP therefore maintained her earlier submission of a four-year discount for the delay factor.

Admitting that the case took longer than it should have to conclude, Babb pointed out that in 2019, there was a limited number of criminal courts working to clear a backlog of over 1 800 cases and during the COVID-19 pandemic, there were no jury trials.

“You cannot look at these things in isolation,” she stressed.

Weekes agreed with Babb-Agard’s recommended deduction for the delay, a change from the seven years he submitted previously. However, he maintained that Watson’s early plea discount should not be less than one-fourth.

“In 2012, we still had a mandatory death penalty. That remained the law in Barbados until June 2018 when the Caribbean Court of Justice struck down the mandatory death penalty as unconstitutional…. Parliament did not formally amend the Defences Against the Person Act until November of 2018, so under the law of Barbados, the first available opportunity that Mr Watson would have had technically would have been the end of November 2018,” he insisted.

Watson, 46, of Bannantyne Gardens, Christ Church, had admitted to non-capital murder in the stabbing death of 37-year-old Nicole Harrison-Watson on April 28, 2012.