By Barbara Gayle, Staff ReporterCHIEF JUSTICE Lensley Wolfe is to make a ruling in the next two weeks as to whether the Judicial Review Court has the power to review the acquittal of Police Constable Rohan Allen, who was freed of manslaughter arising from the fatal shooting of 13-year-old Janice Allen.
Constable Allen, no relation to the deceased, was freed in the Portland Circuit Court on March 15 this year. The Crown offered no evidence in the case because of reports that a vital witness for the prosecution was abroad and could not be located.
The policeman's acquittal led to much public outcry from local and international human rights groups.
SEEKING TO QUASH ACQUITTAL
Following the acquittal, Millicent Forbes, mother of the deceased, brought an application in the Supreme Court seeking leave to go to the Judicial Review Court for an order to quash the acquittal of the policeman. Forbes is seeking a declaration that the trial was a nullity.
After Forbes filed the application, the Attorney-General filed an application in the Supreme Court seeking to have the application struck out.
Lawyers from the Attorney-General's Department argued yesterday in chambers that the Judicial Review Court did not have the power to overturn the outcome of cases in the Circuit Courts. Attorney-at-law Nicole Foster-Pusey argued that the ruling that Forbes was seeking amounted to asking the Judicial Review Court to exercise jurisdiction over the Circuit courts. It was further argued that the application for judicial review was brought by the wrong procedure.
The Chief Justice reserved his decision yesterday and will give his ruling in the next two weeks.
Janice Allen was shot and killed a few metres from her gate on Third Street in Trench Town, south St. Andrew, on April 14, 2000. It was reported then that Allen was killed in a shoot-out between the police and gunmen. Intensive investigations by the police led to Constable Allen, who was attached to the Denham Town Police Station, charged with manslaughter.
