involve themselves in criticisms of the court system. The courts must be distanced from politics. They are here to administer the law as enacted by Parliament as best they can and as they see fit. The courts must not enter politics any more than politics should impact on the courts. Division is of the essence.

Individual judges impose sentences on guilty persons according to the law and according to their consciences after listening to the cases presented to them.

Judges hear all of the details of the case, fact and law, often including statements on the character of the accused and such things as social inquiry and probation reports, and therefore have much more information than the politicians or individual members of the public. Judges also have an opportunity to closely observe the behaviour of the accused in court and their experience allows them to make conclusions on the accused's character.

Mandatory sentences which are right now being advocated preclude their ability to sentence according to the merits of a case. Such sentences can lead to miscarriages of justice where a person may be technically guilty but where there are strong mitigating circumstances. There is, or should be, in any Country's courts a human element which allows for mercy or which allows for tough sentences. The very word "judge'' confirms an ability to make judgments based on knowledge and experience and without emotion.

More and more in Bermuda politicians or concerned groups of people second guess sentences without the close familiarity with a case which a judge has.

What this second guessing really says is "we want to hang them no matter what the circumstances and no matter what the judge thinks''. That is not justice.

In the most recent outcry over the sentence imposed in a man for incest, the Health Minister Clarence Terceira has quite correctly stated that it would not be right or appropriate for him to comment. Other politicians did enter the fray.

None of this is to even imply that this newspaper is soft on sex offenders. We understand the alarm among women's groups and among individual women. These cases are always controversial especially when the sex offence is against young people. However none of us know all the details of the case nor do we know on what basis an experienced judge made his decision.

The function of the politicians is to put in place laws covering sentences which Parliament in its wisdom thinks are suitable to the crime. The public has a complaint with Government if the sentences are inappropriate and they may be too harsh just as they may be too light. In that case it is up to the politicians to respond to the public will and change the sentences.

However once sentences are defined under the law it is also up to politicians to leave the courts alone to get on with administering the law as passed by Parliament. It is destructive of the entire system for parliamentarians to criticise judges, directly or indirectly, and that happens far too often in Bermuda.

In our view, it would be far more seemly for politicians to spend some constructive time taking a hard look at Bermuda's unsatisfactory jury system.