Courtenay Griffiths is the lead defense lawyer for the former President of Liberia, Charles Taylor convicted for war crimes for supporting rebels in Sierra Leone, and selling diamonds to back the Revolutionary United Front of Sierra Leone. The civil crisis in Sierra Leone killed thousands of people. The rebels used kids as soldiers, and chopped off the body parts of rival forces with machetes. The UN High Court levied 11 counts against Charles Taylor for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The life of Courtenay Griffiths started in Jamaica but at the age of five he along with his Mom, his sister, and his seven brothers left Jamaica for the United Kingdom to join their father who had left from Kingston, Jamaica in 1955 to Coventry in search for a job as carpenter. Courtenay Griffiths, who was featured on the BBC programme Outlook, said defending peopled like Charles Taylor is considered controversial, but his conscience remains clear. Griffiths said the system of justice cannot operate unless there is a semblance of equality between prosecution and defense. Otherwise it becomes an inquisition and that would soon lose the confidence of the public. “It is right and proper that a defendant, however heinous the crime committed, has the right to the best representation.”
On the BBC Outlook programme, Courtenay Griffiths explained his journey as a British barrister and further talked about his early life in Britain. He said when they were living in Coventry all the white citizens in Coventry would stop his parents and ask: ‘Can we touch them? It’s good luck.’ “It was a completely novel event for them. Constantly we’d virtually stop traffic in Coventry anytime we ventured out.” Griffiths said one afternoon being in the Precinct – an ugly concrete structure in the middle of Coventry – and must have been about 14 or 15 at the time. Something happened, and he was taken by a police officer to the police box in the centre of town. “Me with my public education was trying to argue the toss with him. He was having none of it. He grabbed me round the collar, pushed me up the face: ‘Listen blackie, you’re in police custody now, don’t mess around’. Griffiths said whenever there was an incident in Coventry involving black youths; the first port of call would be to their house because there were eight boys living in their house. Griffiths saw law as a means out of the way he and his family were living, a life supported by the sole bread winner in their house, his father.
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Source: Outlook, BBC World Service