AG: No ‘error’ over Pitman

In a statement issued Friday, the AG’s Office said it wished to correct what it referred to as "misleading" news reports.

"If any blame can be assigned it must be to those who, contrary to the accepted procedure, allegedly filed notice in the Court of Appeal but failed to serve the notice on either the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), the Solicitor General, or the Registrar to the Privy Council, as the practice demands."

The AG’s Office said it was committed to the rule of law and to the judicial process. "This was scrupulously followed in the case of Lester Pitman."

Pitman was convicted of killing John Cropper, Maggie Lee and Lynette Pearson at their Cascade home by tying them up and slitting their throats with an accomplice, but the victims’ relative Angela Cropper does not want Pitman hanged.

The AG’s statement said that in May the Ministry had inquired into the status of prisoners on death row. It was concerned about the pace of the appeals of condemned prisoners, given the Privy Council’s ruling in the Pratt and Morgan case and the fact that it is important to minimise delays in the judicial process.

"On May 27 diligent checks were made with the Registry of the Court of Appeal and with the Solicitor General’s Chambers as to the status regarding the condemned Lester Pitman whose appeal before the Court of Appeal of Trinidad and Tobago had been dismissed on April 15." Neither place had any record of any intention by Pitman to seek special leave to appeal to the Privy Council, said the statement. In addition neither the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) nor the Ministry of National Security had any record of any intended appeal.

"The diligent checks established that the prisoner Lester Pitman had not followed the established procedure since the dismissal of his appeal on April 15 to seek the leave required to appeal his conviction."

The AG’s office said that since the Registrar of the Appeal Court up to May 27 could show no record of a notice of appeal being filed, the State was entitled to conclude that Pitman had voluntarily abandoned his appeals and the State therefore acted accordingly.

"The Ministry of the Attorney-General is committed to ensuring that condemned prisoners and their attorneys do not exploit any weakness in the judicial system to prolong their stay on death row beyond the five year limit suggested by the Pratt and Morgan judgement, and will continue to work assiduously to execute all sentences mandated by the courts which may properly be carried out at this time".