Criminal trials with jury assistance resumed this Monday, July 27, 2026, in the Port-au-Prince jurisdiction, ending eight years without jury criminal trials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Criminal trials with jury assistance resumed this Monday, July 27, 2026, in the Port-au-Prince jurisdiction, ending eight years without jury criminal trials. Held at the premises of the specialized judicial units in Fragneau-Ville (Delmas 75), these hearings attracted a large audience made up of students, lawyers, relatives of the parties, and curious onlookers, who filled both rooms made available to the court. In total, seven criminal trials are scheduled for this week, before the start of the judicial holidays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The government commissioner at the Port-au-Prince Court of First Instance, Me Jean Fritz Patterson Dorval, who represented the prosecution in a murder case, announced that a rotation system will be put in place during the judicial holidays to allow a greater number of cases to be processed.One of the main cases on the docket involves the murder of Michelle Nathanielle Megine, a police officer from the 28th class of the Haitian National Police (PNH). The nine members of the jury will have to decide the fate of Jean Henderson Cantave, the victim’s brother-in-law, and his wife, Nathalie Michelle, both accused in connection with this case. According to PNH investigators, the crime originated from a family dispute over the sale of a house owned by the family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The dean of the Port-au-Prince Court of First Instance, Me Bernard Saint-Vil, presided over the proceedings. He was assisted by Me Pierre Claudy Cadiche, clerk, and Clair Brun, court usher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The second case heard on this first day involved Natacha Nelson, accused of involuntary manslaughter of the person known as F\u00e9nelon. Magistrate Benjamin F\u00e9lism\u00e9 presided over this hearing, while the public prosecutor was represented by Me Perrier Ricot. Dieuveille Pierre served as clerk and Josu\u00e9 Cadet as court usher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The newspaper will report separately on the verdicts that are handed down in each of these trials.Eight years after the last criminal trials with jury assistance were held in the Port-au-Prince jurisdiction, the Minister of Justice and Public Security, Me Patrick P\u00e9lissier, made a brief visit to the site. He wanted to check on the conditions in which criminal hearings are held, both with and without a jury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The head of the MJSP praised the courage and commitment of the jury members, noting that they carry out a civic act of great importance by agreeing to take on this significant responsibility in the service of justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Several cases involving about ten defendants will be examined during this criminal session. The charges mainly concern offenses such as rape, murder, armed robbery, and kidnapping. These hearings mark the resumption of criminal trials with a jury in a jurisdiction where the last trials date back to 2018.If the first day generally went well, a few drawbacks did put a damper on the restart. The meals provided turned out to be insufficient for all the jurors, while the stifling heat in the courtrooms was tough on judges, lawyers, and participants. Several people also complained about the quality of the meals served.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Criminal trials with jury assistance resumed this Monday, July 27, 2026, in the Port-au-Prince jurisdiction, ending eight years without jury criminal trials. Criminal trials with jury assistance resumed this Monday,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6466,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_angie_page":false,"content-type":"","_aifi_custom_prompt":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","page_builder":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"coauthors":[57],"class_list":["post-6465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/times509.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/times509.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/times509.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/times509.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/times509.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6465"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/times509.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6467,"href":"https:\/\/times509.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6465\/revisions\/6467"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/times509.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/times509.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/times509.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/times509.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6465"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/times509.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=6465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}