Latest update December 19th, 2024 3:22 AM
Appeal Court upholds 20-year jail sentence for ‘Dusk Till Dawn’ murder convicts
Murdered: Marlon Ramcharran.
Kaieteur News – The Court of Appeal has upheld the 20-year jail sentence of Joshua Persaud and Raphael Morrison; the duo found guilty of the 2013 murder of 18-year-old Marlon Ramcharran.
According to the facts of the case, the two were sentenced to jail in 2014, following a trial before Justice Diana Insanally at the High Court in Georgetown.
Based on previous reports, Persaud and Morrison while armed with a cutlass and pieces of wood, inflicted several wounds on 18-year-old Ramcharran at ‘Dusk Till Dawn Nightclub’ of Tain New Housing Scheme, Corentyne where the fight broke out.
Ramcharran’s cause of death was later given as shock and haemorrhage resulting from multiple incised wounds.
Both, Persaud and Morrison had filed their appeal on the same day they were sentenced and convicted.
The matter took six years to be heard. As such, part of their appeal, the duo had argued through lawyers Murseline Bacchus and Kim Kyte, that the five-year delay in the hearing of their clients’ appeal is a breach of their constitutional rights.
Additionally, it was argued by attorney Bacchus that the trial judge failed to properly put the defence of his clients to the jury. The lawyer contended that the prosecution’s star witnesses gave a statement to the police in which they said certain things that were inconsistent with their testimony. In fact, the lawyers submitted that the inconsistency does not only relate to their credibility but also to the evidence of identification.
Among other things, he argued that the trial Judge made an error in law when she rejected the no-case submission made by him on behalf of his client. In fact, the lawyer said that the records of appeal do not reflect the trial judge providing reasons for rejecting the no-case submission.
The attorney insisted that reasons must be recorded so that the higher court could consider whether the submission was properly rejected/admitted.
However, yesterday the Appeal Court Bench comprising Chancellor of the Judiciary, Justice Yonette Cummings-Edwards and Justices of Appeal Rishi Persaud and Dawn Gregory Persaud, delivered a ruling that rejected the convicts’ contentions that the trial Judge erred in law when she refused to uphold a no-case submission made on their behalf.
In reading out the decision, Justice Cummings-Edwards noted the Court agrees with Senior State Counsel, Mercedes Glasford, who submitted that there was sufficient evidence for the trial judge to send the evidence to the jury for deliberation on a verdict.
Further, the Chancellor said that the court was of the view that the trial judge provided the jury with adequate directions on how they should deal with the evidence of the prosecution and defence. The Chancellor noted that the records show that the trial judge reminded the jury of their duty to reject part or all of a witness’s testimony.
Justice Cummings-Edwards noted therefore that the trial judge had cautioned the jury that in this regard.
She noted that the Judge was specific to state that “if they had any doubts that it was Persaud and Morrison who committed the crime based on the evidence led by the two witnesses, one whose sense might have been impaired due to alcohol consumption, then they have to set them free.”
Meanwhile, on the issue of fair trial within a reasonable time, Justice Cummings-Edwards conceded that it has “some merit.”
However, she pointed out that the defence counsel failed to justify that the six-year delay in the hearing of the appeal amounted to an abuse of the court process.
The judge admitted that all appellants are faced with delays in their appeals as a result of the case backlog the judiciary is faced.
Lawyers for the murder convicts had asked the court to release them from prison if the conviction and sentence were affirmed. They cited the local case of Mark Fraser vs the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
However, the Appeal Court reasoned that the circumstances of the two cases are different; hence the precedent could not be applied or used to successfully challenge the imprisonment of Persaud and Morrison.
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