Killer couple death sentence commuted to life

Kenrick London and his wife Chandroutie,  who were convicted of the murder of Chandroutie’s  sister Meena Sookoo, had their sentences of death by hanging commuted to life imprisonment by the Court of Appeal. They cheated the hangman’s noose by benefiting from the Privy Council’s ruling in Roodal versus the State of TT in which the Law Lords  stated that the imposition of the mandatory sentence of death for murder was invalid. However, in the recent case of Charles Matthew v The State, the Privy Council overruled that decision, stating that Roodal was wrongly decided and upheld the constitutionality of the mandatory death penalty in TT.

In a written judgement of Justices of Appeal Roger Hamel-Smith, Lionel Jones and Wendell Kangaloo, their lordships said: “We noted however, that the Privy Council ordered that the sentence of death imposed on those persons awaiting execution pending the determination of Matthew be set aside and, in its place, their Lord-ships directed that a sentence of life imprisonment be imposed on such persons. Kenrick and Chandroutie obviously fall within this category of prisoner and would be entitled to the benefit of that ruling.” Earlier this year,  the Court had dismissed the couple appeals and deferred ruling on sentence pending the outcome of Matthew.

Kenrick London’s attorney Ian Stuart Brook, argued nine grounds of appeal which were rejected, while Chandroutie’s attorney Joseph Pantor, argued four grounds of appeal which also had no merit. Arguing the appeal for the State was special prosecutor Devan Rampersad.
Kenrick and his wife were convicted on May 15, 2002 and sentenced to death for the murder of Meena by Justice Melville Baird.