Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter
THE UNITED Kingdom Privy Council has set aside the murder conviction and sentence of a Jamaican man because of a breach of the Judges Rules.
The case of 24-year-old Shabbadine Peart has been remitted to the Court of Appeal for it to determine whether he should face a retrial.
The Privy Council held Wednesday that the questions and answers which the police took from Peart after he was arrested and charged were in breach of the Judges Rules. In allowing the appeal, the Privy Council said it found it impossible to hold that "the result must have been the same if the evidence" in relation to the questions and answers had been excluded at the trial.
According to the Judges Rules, it was only in exceptional circumstances that cases relating to the offence should be put to the accused person after he has been charged or informed he may be prosecuted.
Peart was 18 years old when he was arrested and charged on May 18, 1999, with the murder of Delroy Parchment, a security guard who was employed to DYC Fishing at Brentford Road, Kingston. Parchment was shot dead on the night of May 14, 1999, on Curphey Road. Parchment's firearm was stolen.
SENTENCED TO HANG
On July 10, 2000, a Home Circuit Court jury convicted Peart of the murder and he was sentenced to hang. The Court of Appeal dismissed his appeal on December 19, 2003.
The Crown subsequently conceded that the appeal against sentence should be allowed based on the recent Privy Council's ruling in the case of Lambert Watson that the mandatory death sentence was unconstitutional.
The Privy Council said further that Peart was 18 when he was arrested and charged and did not have the service of a lawyer before the interview where the questions were asked.
The Privy Council said it found it impossible to hold that Peart would have been convicted by the jury if the evidence in relation to the questions and answer had been excluded.
