The Crisis of Low Conviction rate in Sri Lankan Criminal Justice System, A Critical Analysis of the Root-causes

Abstract

The function of the "Criminal Justice System" is to deliver justice for all, by prosecuting suspects before the competent courts based on evidence and convicting them if they proved to be guilty while protecting the innocent. Generally the "conviction rate" which is the percentage ratio of number of convictions out of the number of criminal cases brought within a particular jurisdiction in specific time period would show the degree of efficiency and effectiveness of that criminal justice system. Throughout the last few years Sri Lanka has been experiencing very low criminal conviction rate which ranging from 4% to 6%. Does it mean that majority of suspects are innocent? Meanwhile the crime rate of the country is relatively high. This situation has endangered the social life of the general public, adversely affect to the national economy and ultimately tarnish the good will of the country. As a common law country Sri Lanka has been implementing the "Adversarial method" of litigation which gives priority to the procedure than finding the truth. A neutral judge has taken a decision by considering the submissions of conflicting parties. The accused is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty with proof of beyond the reasonable doubt. In Sri Lanka, Attorney general, Police or other competent government officials conduct the prosecution while under the "Inquisitorial method" judge prosecute the accused in trial with the view of conviction. So under the common law tradition prosecution has to undergo with tedious task to convict the accused. Initially this paper elaborates the gravity of the problem while attempting to find where the root causes exist in the criminal justice system. Then it discusses some of the critical issues which may arise in establishing the case in a court from the perspective of the prosecutor under three categories; investigation, prosecution, and legal procedural factors. This research would base on secondary sources including reference of statutes, text books, electronic data bases, journals etc. In order to ensure that the situation in Sri Lanka is understood in the light of the international developments in this regard, further this study engages with selected jurisdictions such as India, USA, Japan and UK.