Yet another prisoner fights ‘President’s Pleasure’ sentence

YET another prisoner sentenced by a High Court judge at the “President’s Pleasure” for murder, is seeking to have the sentence quashed.

Edmund Fonrose, 40, is contending that it is unconstitutional for the President of the Republic to determine the duration of his sentence. A similar motion was filed last week by murder accused Chuck Attin, who, at age 17, was sentenced at the “President’s Pleasure,” for the infamous Westmoorings murders. Fonrose, who set fire to his family’s house in 1981, in which his mother and grandmother were burnt to death, was found guilty but insane, by a jury. Justice Ivor Blackman, in accordance with Section 64 and 65, ordered Funrose detained at the “President’s Pleasure.”  In jail for the past 22 years, Fonrose is seeking to be released on the ground that he feared being kept in prison for the rest of his life by virtue of being held at the “President’s Pleasure.” In fact, Fonrose is the longest serving inmate incarcerated at the “President’s Pleasure.”

The motion, filed by attorney Gerald Ramdeen, instructing attorney Mark Seepersad, raises the question of the constitutionality of the sentence “at the President’s Pleasure.” Under Section 74, the President is head of the executive branch of Government of which there are three branches (Judicial/Executive/ Legislature) in all democratic governments. According to the grounds in the motion filed at the Hall of Justice, Port of Spain, only the court (Judicial branch) can determine the length of a sentence.  Under the separation of powers doctrine (Judicial/Executive/ Legislature), the ground stated, the duration of a prisoner’s period of incarceration cannot be left up to the “President’s Pleasure.”  But Section 64 and 65 of the Criminal Procedure Act, gives power to a judge to so impose such a sentence, if a person is found guilty but insane.

The motion, however, is contending that those sections contravene the Constitution in which the executive (President) does not have the power to determine the duration of a sentence. The motion is seeking to have those sections of the Criminal Procedure Act, declared by the court to be invalid. The attorneys, pleading that Fonrose’s sentence was therefore illegal and unconstitutional, is seeking to have a High Court Judge order his immediate release.