Pardoned killer goes home

BOODRAM BEDASSIE, who was convicted of murder 28 years ago, was released from prison yesterday afternoon after receiving a Presidential Pardon. Bedassie, who will turn 65 in December, was overjoyed when the prison authorities informed him that he was going home with his sister-in-law, Basdaye Bir, who was visiting him at the time. Bedassie was taken out of the Port-of-Spain State Prison in a wheelchair because of his medical condition. He is suffering from diabetes, a congested heart, and tuberculosis. He was transported in a prison ambulance to his brother’s house in Caroni. When Newsday visited Bedassie late yesterday, he had already consumed a soft drink, food and juice, but what he really wants is curry duck. He was so weak, he had to be assisted by members of his family. Bedassie has been in and out of hospital seven times in the last three months. “There is no medication in the prison, I suffered so much, I got very ill.”

Bedassie said he spent 17 and a half years on Death Row, and a total of 30 years in the prison system. He spent between 1976 and 1994 in the condemned section. “I never thought I would be released. I thought I would dead inside the prison.” The pardoned killer said that during his time on Death Row he heard when six persons were hanged. He could not recall all the names, but remembered Stanley Abbott, Bobby Gransaul and Glen Ashby. “I had already been given a commutation when Glen Ashby was hanged. I was in B2 and I could hear him bawling all the way to the gallows. They shouldn’t have executed him, there was an appeal pending,” Bedassie added. Bedassie, a recipient of the Pratt and Morgan judgment in 1993, said he was a relieved man when he received his commutation. “I felt good, but there was nothing I could do. I heard I was being given natural life. I thought I would dead inside there.” While on Death Row, Bedassie heard that fellow inmates were being pardoned. His hopes were dashed on June 7, 1988 when a warrant was read to him for his execution two days later. “I did not feel good, I was going to dead,” a startled Bedassie recalled.

He said he was moved to a cell closer to the gallows. “I heard the prison authorities carrying out the preparations for my hanging. I was really scared.” Bedassie’s sister-in-law Basdaye Bir said she was present at the prison when they weighed him for execution. “I was there, I saw everything, I had gone to visit him. It was really a scary feeling.” Bedassie said he was getting prepared for his execution when attorney Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj filed a constitutional motion and his hanging was stopped. In 1990, he said he was called to the Superintendent of Prison’s office and informed that he was one of the prisoners to be released for Independence, but that plan was dashed with the attempted coup of July 1990.  “After that, it was only talk, and talk, and more talk. I wrote several letters to the President asking for a pardon, but I never got a reply.” Bedassie said ever since Newsday broke the story on Wednesday that he was being pardoned, he received a lot of visits from prisoners and prison officials at the Infirmary where he was kept. Bedassie was sentenced to death on April 28, 1976 for the murder of Mohan Dindial. He lost his appeal seven months later, and his appeal to the Privy Council was thrown out on March 24, 1978.