Killers to know fate in six weeks

Submissions in the Cascade triple murder appeal, in which two men are challenging their convictions for the murder of three persons and their death sentences, ended yesterday with the Court of Appeal promising judgment in six weeks time. Special prosecutor Dana Seetahal told Justices Stanley John (President), Ivor Archie and Paula Mae Weekes that should they find that any directions of the trial judge were incorrect, the proviso should be applied in this case having regard on the assessment of the evidence. The proviso is applied when the court finds that the trial judge has erred in his directions to the jury, but if the proper directions were given, the jury would have invariably arrived at the same verdict.

Leon Gokool, who represented appellant Lester Pitman, and Bindra Dolsingh, who represented Daniel Agard, had both asked the court to order a retrial. At the end of Seetahal’s submission, Gokool told the court Seetahal had made an error in law when she said the trial judge had left a window of opportunity open for a verdict of manslaughter. He contended that there was no verdict of manslaughter open to a person on the charge of murder  when the judge’s summing up is based on joint enterprise.

But before Seetahal could respond, Justice John told her it was not necessary and  indicated to Gokool that they were startled by his proposition and asked him to provide them with the authority for his contention. Gokool said he had read it somewhere and would try to find the case. Dolsingh’s main ground of appeal against Agard’s conviction was that Agard had withdrawn from the joint enterprise by his physical departure from the premises before the murder. He contended that there were two transactions — the robbery and the murder.