THE COURT of Appeal has ordered a new trial for a security guard because of errors by the trial judge in the summation to the jury.
Lenford Clarke, the appellant, was convicted in February 2001 of the murder of Richard Coombs.
Coombs was shot dead at the night club known as Club Cancer in Smithfield, Westmoreland on June 24, 2002. Clarke who was on duty at the club on the night of the incident said he was being attacked by the deceased.
APPEAL CONVICTION
After Clarke was convicted by the jury, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. The judge recommended that he should serve 20 years before he was eligible for parole.
Clarke appealed against his conviction and sentence.
Attorney-at-law Patrick Atkinson argued several grounds of appeal some of which were upheld by the Court of Appeal.
FLAWED
The Court of Appeal agreed that the trial judge erred in withdrawing provocation from the jury. The court found also that the judge's directions on self defence were materially flawed.
The court comprising Mr. Justice Paul Harrison, Mr. Justice Algernon Smith and Mrs. Justice Hazel Harris (acting) called on trial judges to avoid telling the jury that a statement made from the dock is not evidence or that it has no evidential value.
"Such a categorisation of the unsworn statement might have the effect of withdrawing from the jury a full and fair consideration of all the issues raised in defence, thus denying an accused person a fair trial", the court held.
- B.G.
