Deciding The Fate Of Corrupt Judges – Lessons From The Bastian Of Democracy –United States Of America

There is no need beating a dead horse. It is well determined – Some of the judges in Ghana have behaved badly. In fact they behaved very badly. They have betrayed the trust placed in them and they have broken the vows they took to uphold the law which states something like this. “I, ___ ___, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich, and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon me as JUDGE under the Constitution and laws of the Republic of Ghana. So help me God.”

Bust as the powers that be grapple with how to dispense justice in a fair and equitable manner, we at the Corruption and Fraud Audit Consortium (CAFAC) Ghana limited, wish to offer some precedents from the bastion of democracy - the US - that can inform the ongoing process and help provide best practices worthy of emulation.

1. New York Judge Is Charged With Taking Bribes – December 4, 1994

A Manhattan Housing Court judge was charged yesterday with accepting bribes of $1,000 to $1,500 to rule in favor of landlords and tenants who paid them. The Manhattan District Attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau, said the judge, Arthur R. Scott Jr., a housing judge for 13 years, had accepted at least four bribes, three of them part of a sting operation mounted by Mr. Morgenthau's office.

The judge, Mr. Morgenthau said, was "an equal opportunity receiver," taking money from landlords, tenants and lawyers. In some cases, he said, the judge used a middleman to solicit the bribes. But prosecutors said that in at least two instances, Judge Scott personally accepted the money in meetings outside the courthouse.

Wearing a brown sport jacket and dark slacks, a Burberry raincoat draped over his arms, Judge Scott, 47, who was arrested Monday night, stood impassively at his arraignment yesterday in Criminal Court. His lawyer, Frank J. Loverro, denied all the charges. Criminal Court Judge Sheryl Parker set bail for the judge at $10,000 and ordered him to surrender his passport while waiting for a Feb. 9 hearing.

Two other people were charged with collecting money on the judge's behalf, and a lawyer was charged with paying a bribe. Mr. Morgenthau said that more arrests were expected, but that there was no evidence to indicate that any of the court's other judges took bribes.

Investigators said they paid out more than $10,000 in bribes in the cases, but it is not clear how much the judge received and how much went to a middleman, said a law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

2) Pennsylvania Judge Sentenced To 28 Years In Massive Juvenile Justice Bribery Scandal; August 11, 2011 11.29 am et.

A Pennsylvania judge was sentenced to 28 years in prison in connection to a bribery scandal that roiled the state's juvenile justice system. Former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella Jr. was convicted of taking $1 million in bribes from developers of juvenile detention centers. The judge then presided over cases that would send juveniles to those same centers. The case came to be known as "kids-for-cash."

The AP adds: The Pennsylvania Supreme Court tossed about 4,000 convictions issued by Ciavarella between 2003and 2008, saying he violated the constitutional rights of the juveniles, including the right to legal counsel and the right to intelligently enter a plea.

Ciavarella, 61, was tried and convicted of racketeering charges earlier this year. His attorneys had asked for a "reasonable" sentence in court papers, saying, in effect, that he's already been punished enough. "The media attention to this matter has exceeded coverage given to many and almost all capital murders, and despite protestation, he will forever be unjustly branded as the 'Kids for Cash' judge," their sentencing memo said.

The Times Leader, of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., reports that the court house in Scranton was overflowing this morning. More than a dozen people who said they had been affected by the judge's decision stood outside, awaiting the sentencing.

Jeff Pollins was in that crowd. His stepson was convicted by Ciavarella. "These kids are still affected by it. It's like post-traumatic stress disorder," Pollins told the Times Leader. "Our life is ruined. It's never going to be the same... I'd like to see that happen to him," he said.

3) Former Judge Claville Gets Five-Year Sentence For Taking Bribes: February 12, 2009

Former Caddo Parish juvenile court judge Vernon Claville was sentenced today to five years in federal prison for taking bribes in return for judicial favors. "Your conduct mocks the bedrock idea of equal justice under law," U.S. District Judge Maurice Hicks told Claville during a 22-minute sentencing hearing at the United States Court House in Shreveport. "There is no justice when judges are on the take." Claville was ensnared in a federal corruption case that had targeted Caddo District Court Judge Michael Walker. Claville, 57, was convicted this past spring of taking payoffs to lift holds so that people could get out of jail. Walker, 58, was found guilty of taking bribes in return for reducing bonds so that drug defendants could get out of jail. He was sentenced Thursday to 10 years in prison. Hicks noted that the level of criminal conduct between the two judges was "vastly different." The judge also ordered Claville to pay $165,474 -- a $30,000 fine plus the costs of his incarceration and supervised release after he gets out of prison. Both Walker and Claville faced up to 20 years in prison.

OBSERVATIONS
From the cumulative force of these three cited cases, the following observations can be made:

1. Sting operations can be used to catch judges in the act of bribery
2. What Anas Amereyaw, the investigative journalist did was a sting operation. There remains the issue of its legality, having been done by a private citizen as against law enforcement professionals.
3. In the US there is a zero tolerance for judges who collect bribes. In the words of US District Judge Maurice, a judge collecting bribe mocks the bedrock of equal justice under the law.
4. In the US, the law is no respecter of persons and judges who collect bribes are made to face the full rigors of the law and when found guilty are sentenced to jail in accordance with the law, period.
5. The Chief Justice may be doing the wrong thing in setting up a disciplinary committee to deal with these judges who collected bribes and were caught on video during the sting operation of award winning investigative journalist Anas Amereyaw.
6. Probably, the right thing to do may be to put all implicated judges before a court of competent jurisdiction and let the chips fall where they may.

CONCLUSION
It is our hope that this issue is handled appropriately, to prevent a recurrence. The judiciary is the last bastion of hope for the common man. If we lose that, our Ghanaian society shall be doomed forever. Long Live Mother Ghana