Judge slams State for tardiness in sentence review

BEFORE deciding on the release of convicted teen killer Leroy Andrews, the office of the DPP is seeking the advice of Sir Godfray Le Quesne QC, the State attorney who argued the appeal of convicted murderer Charles Matthew before the Privy Council. Addressing Justice Anthony Carmona in the Port-of-Spain Fifth Criminal Court yesterday, State attorney George Busby said the State appreciated the “anxiety” surrounding the Andrews matter, but, since it was linked to other matters, the opinion of “counsel” was needed.

Andrews, 30, was found guilty of the murder of Marion Narinesingh in Lopinot and was sentenced at the President’s pleasure by Justice Lennox Deyalsingh on June 29, 1993 since he was a minor at the time and could not be given the death penalty. Andrews’ attorneys Gerald Ramdeen and Mark Seepersad had, on February 2, 2004, filed a motion that under the Children’s Act, their client’s detention was unconstitutional because it contradicted the rule of separation of powers. Andrews should have been detained at the Court’s pleasure, the attorneys said. Madame Justice Mira Dean Amorer had upheld Andrews’ motion and ordered he be detained at the Court’s pleasure with periodical reviews. The State had then agreed to a consent order.

However, when the matter was called before Carmona on December 2, the State requested that the consent order be re-opened by Justice Dean Amorer in light of the Privy Council judgment in Matthew’s case — the Privy Council had ruled there was no contradiction of separation of powers in having the Mercy Committee, instead of the Judiciary, evaluate the sentences of persons on Death Row. The separation of powers principle is the same principle the State intends to argue in its attempt to re-open Dean Amorer’s ruling. Meanwhile, when a similar matter involving another convicted teen killer, Otis Melville, came up before Madame Justice Paula Mae Weekes in the city’s Second Criminal Court yesterday, the State, represented by attorney Cheron Raphael, requested an adjournment because it was not ready to proceed. 

Although the request was eventually granted, the State was severely reprimanded for its inability to make a decision on its position regarding the applicant’s sentence. According to Justice Weekes, at the hearing on October 24, State attorney Joy Balkaran had indicated that the DPP had no intention of resisting the release of the applicant. Now, the judge said, another DPP representative (Raphael) said she had no such instructions from the DPP. “The State can’t just take forever. It is amazing that up to now it cannot come to an agreement on the issue,” Weekes said. “It is unfair to the applicant to leave him hanging,” she concluded. Melville was convicted of the murder of another teenager, Lenny Beckles, who was fatally stabbed on January 13, 1993 at a basketball court in Morvant. Both Melville and Andrews will re-appear before Weekes and Carmona respectively on January 5, 2005.