LAWYERS FOR the family of Janice Allen, the teenager who was killed by a policeman's bullet six years ago, will take their case to a panel of judges in the Court of Appeal today. They will ask that the court declare a March 2004 decision in the Supreme Court, that found Constable Rohan Allen not guilty of her death, a nullity.
"We have been told that it is a big mountain to climb but the fact that the lawyers convinced one of the judges shows there is a chance," said Carolyn Gomes of human rights group, Jamaicans For Justice.
Janice Allen was mortally wounded by a stray bullet on April 14, 2000, during what police reported was a shoot-out in Trench Town where the 13-year-old lived.
One year later, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) ruled that a policeman was to be charged with murder in her death.
COMMITTED FOR TRIAL
After a preliminary enquiry which lasted 15 months, the policeman was committed for trial in the Home Circuit Court in November 2002.
The case went to trial in the Port Antonio Circuit Court in March 2004. At the trial which lasted less than an hour, the prosecution failed to present any evidence, relying mainly on the purported unavailability of a vital witness - a policeman who was said to be abroad on sick leave and unlikely to return to the island.
The jury was instructed to return a not-guilty verdict. It later was confirmed by then Commissioner of Police Francis Forbes, that the court had been misled as to the policeman's unavailability.
Mr. Forbes announced that he had launched an investigation into the matter. The DPP, in a statement to the Ministry of Justice on the events of the case, also said that "the Crown Counsel failed to follow standard procedures."
Richard Small and David Wong Ken, attorneys for Janice Allen's mother Millicent Forbes, have appeared twice in the Supreme Court seeking leave to apply for a judicial review.
They have been denied twice, first by Chief Justice Lensley Wolfe in November 2004, and by a full panel of three judges in February 2005.
