INDEPENDENT UNIVERSITY Senator John Crown last night called for laws to be introduced to criminalise the lobbying of judges by elected representatives.
“It is unethical for politicians to attempt to influence the judicial process, and it ought to be illegal,” he said. “When the Seanad reconvenes in the autumn I will put a Bill before the House which will seek to criminalise the lobbying of judges by elected representatives of the people.”
Fellow Senator David Norris abandoned his presidential bid on Tuesday over a controversy surrounding his writing of a letter appealing for clemency to an Israeli court on behalf of his former partner, Ezra Nawi, in 1997. Mr Nawi was convicted of the statutory rape of a 15-year-old boy.
Political parties discussed a code of conduct on representations and reference letters sent by TDs and Senators three years ago but nothing came of the proposal, and there were no follow-up meetings on the issue.
Whips from all the parties met in April 2008 to consider the introduction of a code of conduct on so-called letters of clemency, sent to judges on behalf of those who had been convicted of criminal offences, or who were serving prison sentences.
Sinn Féin whip Aengus Ó Snodaigh said last night that as far as he could recall, no written proposals emerged from that meeting and the matter did not come for discussion again at whips’ meetings.
The view was echoed by then Green whip Ciarán Cuffe, who said agreement could not be reached on a protocol governing representations.
There had been similar efforts, also unrealised, to draw up a code of conduct following an earlier controversy in 2002.
The meeting in 2008 stemmed from a controversy surrounding a letter written by Labour TD, and now Minister of State, Kathleen Lynch, on behalf of the parents of a convicted rapist who had been sentenced to 13 years. Ms Lynch apologised at the time for writing the letter, accepting it was inappropriate. She said she had no issue with either the conviction or the sentence imposed.
The idea of a code of conduct was suggested by then minister for the environment John Gormley and discussed by whips from Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Labour, Sinn Féin and the Greens. The meeting was chaired by Tom Kitt, who was government chief whip.
Labour leader Eamon Gilmore also wrote to his party’s TDs and Senators that week asking that they not make representations that interfered with the judicial process.
He said at the time he was in favour of a code of conduct, as did Fine Gael’s whip Paul Kehoe.
