Court rules on Maurice Bishop killers today

MOST Grenadians were yesterday unaware that the man responsible for the murder of their Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and members of his cabinet, 22 years ago, may very well be freed today by the courts. The Court of Appeal of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) will decide today whether one-time Grenada revolutionary leader Bernard Coard, who was convicted in 1986 of  the murder of Bishop in a bloody coup, should be set free.

The decision will be handed down this morning on the island of St Lucia where the court is sitting. Some of the few Grenadians who are aware of the situation have no problem with Coard and his men being freed but have serious reservations as to their safety on the island (Grenada) if and when they are freed. Albert Bernadine and businessman Willam Mitchell both feel the majority of Grenadians still harbour violent resentment towards Coard and his gang of revolutionary soldiers. They believe if the men were freed they should immediately seek asylum in another country. “Staying here could prove dangerous to them,” Bernadine said while Mitchell nodded in agreement.

Coard and 13 of his followers of the People’s Revolutionary Army (PRA) seized power in a coup on October 19, 1983, killing Bishop and 13 others at Fort Rupert in St George’s. Coard was sentenced to death on 11 counts of murder but his sentences were commuted to life by then Governor General Sir Paul Scoon in September 1991. The others received three 15-year sentences which were to run consecutively.  The battle to free Coard and his soldiers was led by Trinidadian lawyer Keith Scotland, who filed a constitutional motion on their behalf. In the Grenadian court, Justice Kenneth Benjamin in March 2004, ruled that the decision of Sir Paul,  to commute the death sentences to life imprisonment, was unconstitutional and in breach of the separation of powers. 

He further ordered that the sentence of imprisonment on Coard and the others for the remainder of their lives be quashed and that the prisoners be remanded in custody and brought before a judge of the High Court for re-sentencing within 42 days. The Grenadian government appealed the ruling and appellate judge Justice Gordon, sitting in St Lucia presided over a telephonic hearing and stayed the judgment pending the full hearing and determination of the appeal. Appearing for the Grenadian government were Karl Hudson-Phillips QC and Rohan Phillip. Coard’s wife Phyllis, who was also sentenced with him, was allowed to leave her Richmond Hill Prison in 2000, to receive medical treatment in the United States.