Make legal assistance easily accessible to all

Determination of a case, they say, is not necessarily about what is just; rather, it is about the legal process, which explains why the seemingly guilty would often go scot free as the presumed innocent go to jail.

It is for this reason that legal representation in court becomes gravely important. Judges are keen on facts or rather, evidence, precedents and legal arguments; they are bound by the law to make decisions based on watertight proof that would withstand a retrial or an appeal to a higher court.

How many ordinary Tanzanians, who find themselves on the wrong side of the law, are capable of countering arguments of a legally trained prosecutor or their accusers’ advocate? How many are versed with the need to pick the right kind of witnesses to convince the judge they are innocent and their accusers are the guilty party? The answer is: very few.

It is no wonder, that the Legal Aid Provision Report for 2011/13 released by the Tanzania Network of Legal Aid Providers (Tanlap) on Saturday provides a startling revelation: about 70 per cent of people sentenced to serve various prison terms are those who lacked legal assistance! It is hence not wrong to conclude that a sizeable number of jailed individuals, thanks to court verdicts, are actually innocent, only that they floundered in their defence lacking the benefit of a lawyer.

Jailing the innocent, even without evil intention to do so, is actually a crime against humanity. Our jails are overpopulated as they are, for, while the facilities have a capacity for 29,400 inmates, some reports indicate those serving terms there are between 38,000 to 40,000 convicts at any given time.

It means the conditions behind bars are poor, which makes it even more painful for those jailed by default. There is every reason to look into ways of making legal assistance accessible to all, including the most poor.