Court of Appeal forced to grant adjournment

The Court of Appeal expressed disappointment yesterday that the Legal Aid and Advisory  Authority (LAAA) had not sent someone to explain the late appointment of an attorney to represent condemned killer Junior Phillip, thereby forcing the court to grant a second  adjournment. Phillip is one of three men sentenced to death for the murder of Clint Huggins, who was the key State witness against Dole Chadee and his gang of killers. The other two sentenced to death with Phillip are Clint’s two cousins, Arnold and Leslie Huggins. They have appealed against their death sentences which came up before Justice Lionel Jones (president), Justice Margot Warner and Justice Stanley John, yesterday. Attorney Ian Stuart Brook, who is representing Arnold Huggins was also reappointed to represent Phillip.

Brook told the court that he did not have adequate time to prepare his appeal for Phillip since he was only reappointed on September 23, and  asked the court to adjourn the matter. He assured the court that there was no conflict of interest since Phillip’s ground of appeal was “unique.” Before  Brook asked for an adjournment, he told the court that Israel Khan SC was first appointed to represent Phillip but Khan said he could not find any sustainable ground of appeal. In the meantime, Brook was also appointed and he said he had found grounds of appeal. Apparently, the LAAA discovered that they had two attorneys representing Phillip, and wrote to Brook, instructing him to disregard his letter of appointment. Khan later wrote the LAAA seeking leave to withdraw from the matter. Khan was granted leave to withdraw and Brook was reappointed.

Desmond Allum SC and Rajiv Persad who represented  Leslie Huggins, did not object to the application for an adjournment in the circumstances. However, special prosecutor Dana Seetahal expressed disappointment that she had not been informed earlier of Brook’s situation. She complained that she had to walk with boxes of documents. The matter was adjourned to a date to be fixed. Director of LAAA Gilbert Petersen SC, when contacted yesterday, said the Authority regrets the great inconvenience that the matter had to be adjourned and that a member of the LAAA was not present at the appeal to give an explanation to the court. However, he said that it was only after leave was granted to Khan  to withdraw from the matter that the authority moved swiftly to reappoint Brook, who said he had found grounds on which to appeal.