Adrian Frater, News Editor
WESTERN BUREAU:
TWO MONTEGO Bay men who recently had their conviction on illegal possession of firearm and shooting charges quashed by the Court of Appeal were granted bail when they appeared in the Western Regional Gun Court yesterday.
The men, Omar Haughton and Patrick Clarke, who had been in custody since they were convicted in 2003, got a chance to taste freedom for the first time in three years when Justice Roy Jones, who is presiding over the re-trial, offered them bail, pending the outcome of this case against them.
Attorney-at-law Clayton Morgan bemoaned the length of time it took for the appeals to be heard.
"This case clearly exemplifies the need for urgent judicial reform," he said. "It has been all of three years since they have been languishing behind bars. The sad thing is that if they are freed, as we fully expect them to be, they will not be able to sue the state for false imprisonment."
Mr. Morgan concluded that "It is travesty of justice to keep people locked up for so long because of the slowness of the justice system."
The conviction against the men was revoked when the Court of Appeal ruled in favour of a submission by their lawyers contending that the trial judge misdirected himself on the evidence and failed to consider whether the accused men had been acting in self-defence. The Court of Appeal subsequently ordered a re-trial.
At the first trial, which also took place in the Western Regional Gun Court, the Crown alleged that both accused shot and grievously wounded the complainant in an incident at a house in the Catherine Hall area of Montego Bay on March 28, 2003. The men were later convicted after the complainant identified them in court.
