ABSTRACT
A trial must be fair to an accused in every respect, the refusal of the judge to allow the recall of the witnesses was, in the circumstances of the present case, a miscarriage of justice.
The importance of the fair trial of persons charged with criminal offences is recognized as one of the fundamental rights of the individual by the Constitution of Guyana. Inter alia, Art 10(2) guarantees to anyone who is charged with a criminal offence the right to adequate time and facilities in order to prepare his defence and the right to be defended either in person or by a legal representative of his own choice. It also guarantees that the person charged ‘shall be afforded facilities to examine in person or by his legal representative the witnesses called by the prosecution before the court’. This guarantee which is provided in Art 10(2)(e) of the Constitution is but a re-statement of the common law right referred to by Lord Maugham in Galos Hired v R.
