High Court to decide killer’s fate

A man who was sentenced to hang for shooting to death a maxi-taxi conductor over a $2 maxi fare had his case remitted to a High Court judge yesterday for sentencing, because of the Privy Counsel’s ruling that the death sentence was not mandatory. Glenroy Bishop, now 26, was sentenced to death by Justice Rajendra Narine in 1998, after he was found guilty of murdering maxi-taxi conductor Michael Cabral on December 21, 1994. When his appeal came up before appellate judges Lionel Jones, Wendell Kangaloo and Stanley John, his attorney, Sophia Chote, made the application to remit. She indicated that on sentencing, Bishop may not come back before the Court of Appeal. Assistant DPP Roger Gaspard did not object to the application.

The Privy Council, in a majority decision in the matter of  Balkissoon Roodal, ruled that it was unconstitutional for persons convicted of murder to only be sentenced to death. It was the law of TT that persons convicted of murder be sentenced to death by hanging. But the Law Lords said that that was unconstitutional and suggested that there must be a sentencing hearing before a judge could pass sentence, insinuating that there could be an alternative sentence. As a result, persons convicted of murder and whose appeals are pending are being sent back to the High Court for sentencing.

However, the TT Government and other affected Caribbean states are expected to petition the Privy Council in March to revisit their judgment in Roodal. Bishop, who was 17 at the time,  had alighted from a maxi-taxi called “Nice Folk” in the area of Basilon Street, Tunapuna, at about 8 pm. There was an argument between himself and conductor Cabral over the $2 maxi fare. Bishop pulled out a gun and shot Cabral point blank in the head. He then ran away but was later arrested by Sgt Nitram Kowlessar. At his trial, his defence was that it was a case of mistaken identity as he claimed he was with a cousin at her home at the time of the shooting.