7 killers before Privy Council

FOLLOWING the record of appellants set in the Dole Chadee murder trial, seven convicted killers from Barbados went before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council seeking their freedom from Her Majesty’s Prison in Bridgetown. But the Law Lords dismissed the appeals of three and remitted the cases of the other four back to the High Court in Barbados to conduct a review of the sentences. These four were considered juveniles at the time of the murder. Adrian Stuart, Anthony Mayers, and Victor St Rose were sentenced to death on May 19, 1992, for the murder of Earlyn Garnes. In accordance with Section 14 of the Juvenile Offenders Act, Tennyson Griffith, Fabian Harris, Mark Harris, and Michael Barnett were not sentenced to death, but ordered to be detained at Her Majesty’s Pleasure as they were all under 18 when Garnes was killed.

The Privy Council comprising Lords Hoffmann, Millett, Scott, Rodger, and Brown, dismissed all the grounds of appeal submitted on behalf of Stuart, Mayers and St Rose. But in the case of the four juvenile offenders, Lord Rodger said their cases will be remitted to the Barbados High Court for the court to re-sentence the appellants. He said the Law Lords were content to leave it to the judges and officials in Barbados to devise a system for operating such sentences that suits local conditions. “Obviously, however, a sentence of this kind requires that the court review the question of the detainee’s release at appropriate intervals. Up until now, in the case of these appellants, there has been no such review by the court. In considering whether to direct their release, the court will take into account the fact that they have already been detained in terms of their sentences since May 19, 1992 — a period of over 12 years,” Lord Rodger added.

In Trinidad, there are sentencing reviews pending in the Port-of-Spain High Court for juvenile killers Leroy Andrews (11 years in custody) and Otis Melville (eight years). According to the 11-page judgment of the Privy Council, police officers found Garnes’ body on January 24, 1991, in the car park at Pelican Village, a popular shopping development in the vicinity of the Deep Water Harbour. He was stabbed on the right shoulder, left buttock, and to the left side of the chest. The knife cut Garnes’ sixth rib and had gone on to cut the right border of the deceased’s heart and entered the cavity of the right ventricle. Garnes’ liver was also damaged. The police also found Garnes’ car nearby with the engine running. The seven appellants turned up at the police station where they gave statements admitting that they had been involved, in different ways, in a plan to rob Garnes, and that the execution of the plan had resulted in Garnes’ death. English Queen’s Counsel Keir Starmer represented the seven appellants at the hearing, while Peter Knox represented the State.