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Opinions of Friday, 9 October 2015

Columnist: Akwah, Nana

Absolute Judicial Immunity - Bad Judges Exist.

It is said that absolute judicial immunity is favored as public policy, so that judges may fearlessly, and safe from retribution, adjudicate matters before them.
This is “True”. But equally important, is the public expectation that judicial authority will only be wielded by those lawfully vested with such authority.
Citizens trust and belief in the judicial system requires that judges, lawyers, court clerks, and others associated with the judiciary maintain the highest ethical standards.
Unfortunately, corruption is widespread in government agencies and public enterprises. Our political system promotes nepotism and wasting money. This has undermined our legal system and confidence in the functioning of the state.
One of the consequences is that many citizens are involved in various shades and style of corruption.
Bad Judges exist. We all know they do. The irritation and torment of this evil is this - very few practicing lawyers are willing or able to expose “Bad” Judges publicly, for they are at great risk when they must later appear again before the exposed “Bad” Judge.
The hypocrisy confronting us is that, the exposure of rotten judicial apples has definitely offended and embarrassed the entire judiciary. The Anas investigation has unsheltered and ripped the canopy of the judicial system very much.
When an individual/lawyer as Anas, in diligent pursuit of national interests, has the courage in standing up to Bad Judges, there are those within the "system locks arms”, who seeks to punish or suppress the iconoclastic lawyer.
Before Anas exposé the system's resistance to admitting the existence of a bad judge can be said to be beyond belief, though the perception did exist. Now there is enough proof to debate upon.
At the present, it is importantly refreshing phenomenon and a sigh of relief to have someone stand up to challenge this pain in the neck within the Judiciary. Bad Judges need to be weeded out.
It is to the fair, competent judges that the following is dedicated. “Thus, many of us know that there may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest”.
The person who passes the judgment should be made to swing the sword. Pull the trigger or put the noose or loop of the rope on the condemned.
If you would take a man's life, you owe it to him to look into his eyes and hear his final words. And if you cannot bear to do that, then perhaps the man does not deserve to die.
We fail to realize that justice can be dormant for years and only awaken when it is least expected. The happening or occurrence is nothing more than dormant justice from another time arriving to compensate those it has cruelly abandoned. Whoever knows this is willing to suffer, for he knows that nothing is in vain.
It is about time as people to subject this “Evil” called “JUDICIAL IMMUNITY” to scrutiny and debate it.
I think, when a judge knows that he lacks jurisdiction, or acts regardless of clearly valid statutes expressly depriving him of jurisdiction, judicial immunity is lost.
Judges have given themselves immunity from prosecution. This is an outrage! This fosters corruption.
Judicial immunity is not absolute, and we must all fight against it. I am not an attorney, and I am not providing legal advice to anyone.

Judges have given themselves judicial immunity for their judicial functions. Commonsense should inform us that, Judges have no judicial immunity for criminal acts, aiding, assisting, or conniving with others who perform a criminal act, or for their administrative/ministerial duties.
We must come to an understanding that Judicial immunity does not exist for judges who engage in criminal activity, for judges who connive with - aid and abet the criminal activity of another judge, or to a judge for damages sustained by a person who has been harmed by the judge's connivance with, aiding and abetting, another judge's criminal activity.
As a people we are not wrong. We are fighting to protect our world. Isn't that good enough?
To the privileged, after all, justice in this world is just a bunch of principles made by those with power to suit themselves. No one really thinks of others, you will lose everything if you cannot keep up. Only two kinds of people exist in this world—those who steal and those who are stolen from. So then, today, I just stole your future. That's all.
If you have ever found yourself in court, you probably know all too well the fundamental defects in all of our court experiences – the incredible bias, incompetence, pettiness, capriciousness and intentional negligence of the judges we come before. This brings to fore the worst injustices of the system? – The lack of any effective redress when the judges go badly.
I don’t mind losing a motion, complaint or other court proceeding so much, if there is even a real objective reason for having lost, and it occurred while due process was in force.
But when I think of judges ignoring their own rules, fundamental rules, and when I see them favoring one side over another, and violating existing precedent and stark evidence, in order to simply rule they way they want to, it strikes up outrage and despair as to ever having justice decided in a given court.
So, where is the accountability? The only thing that anyone in a position of power will pay attention to is some kind of personal accountability for their actions when whosoever is subject to their decisions complains about it.
The only accountability judges are subject to, are the normally placid, unpersuasive scolding they receive if they are reversed on appeal. Transparency, answerability must be upheld in judicial discourses. Judicial complaint procedures are hidden from public view, reviewed by their own colleagues, and very hardly ever result in anything resembling sanctions.
In extremely unusual circumstances, when they are actually caught red-handed taking bribes or similar activity, they are prosecuted criminally, and you can be sure that, it does only occurs after all political solutions have been exhausted. From within their system, they are well cushioned and insulated from any real oversight, or personal accountability.
Rather than justice for all, we have evolved a system of justice for those who can afford it. We seem to have reached a point where we have individuals and corporate entities that are not only too big to fail, but too big to be held accountable.
If truth be told, in the real world where most of us live in, when someone who owes you a legal duty, or has a public responsibility and mandate, and then violates that duty, it should be right and accepted, that, those responsible must be sued for that violation.
Finally, be encouraged to stand up for what is right, regardless of who is committing the wrong. We should doff our hats for those who risk exposing hidden crimes to light.