Killer changes top attorney in appeal

Within recent times, the court had noted that prisoners sentenced to death have been trying to beat the legal system and avoid hanging by changing attorneys during appeal hearings.

The court had observed that by employing this delaying tactic, killers hoped to keep their appeals alive beyond the five-year period set by the Privy Council. The Judicial Committee (the board) of the Privy Council suggested during the Pratt and Morgan case that appeals by condemned killers should be completed within a five-year period. To go beyond would amount to cruel and unusual punishment and result in an automatic commutation of sentence to life imprisonment.

The court yesterday expressed regret that Chandradath "was not taking advantage of the fact that he had one of the better lawyers" — Sophia Chote — representing him. Even though Chandradath’s appeal was at an advanced stage, he requested a change of his attorneys — Chote, instructed by Michelle Solomon.

Both attorneys made applications yesterday to withdraw from the matter when Chandradath’s appeal came up before Justices Ivor Archie (President), Allan Mendonca and Paula Mae Weekes. Chandradath had written to Chote making unsubstantiated claims that she was in collusion with the police and the prosecutor. The special prosecutor in this appeal is Bindra Dolsingh.

At yesterday’s hearing, Chote indicated to the court that the relationship between the attorneys and the client had broken down. Chote had already filed several grounds of appeal on behalf of Chandradath. When the matter was called on a previous occasion, July 7, 2005, she requested that Chandradath be sent for psychiatric evaluation at St Ann’s Hospital. He had written to Chote making the allegations sometime after that visit.

Archie told Chandradath, who was brought to court yesterday, that the changing of attorneys by condemned prisoners had become much too common, and the court will no longer countenance such requests without good reason.

He also explained that while he was not saying that Chandradath’s decision to change attorneys was a ploy to delay his case, such requests have been used in the past as a delaying tactic. The court also noted that it was unfair to attorneys who have done much preparation for appeals to then have to surrender the brief.

Dolsingh told the court that unless there are very compelling reasons for change, appellants ought not to be allowed to play the system and request another attorney, after Legal Aid has appointed an attorney of competence.

As the court proposed to adjourn the matter, Chandradath said he wanted attorney Desmond Allum SC to represent him, but Archie made it clear that with Legal Aid, "you don’t get choices, you don’t get to pick. Further, the court cannot designate Allum."

Archie warned Chandradath that on the next occasion his appeal will continue with or without an attorney. The matter was then adjourned to a date to be fixed.

Chandradath, now 32, was sentenced to death by Justice Herbert Volney on October 22, 2003, at the San Fernando Assizes for the double murder of 70-year-old Selwyn Grant and his 65-year-old common-law wife, Ursulla Innis of Syne Village, Siparia.

Chandradath, a mechanic of Allen Avenue, Syne Village, Siparia, was a tenant of the couple and had murdered them between July 31, 1999, and September 17, 1999.

He had strangled Grant and beheaded his wife. He placed her headless corpse in a bathtub and her head in a water tank at the back of their house. Grant’s body was found in a closet. Their bodies were only found when a relative, Benedict Innis, visited the house and saw the corpse on September 17, 1999.