The United Kingdom Privy Council has sent back the murder case of 30-year-old Gerald Muirhead of McKoy Lane, Kingston 11, for the Court of Appeal to decide if there should be a new trial.

Muirhead was convicted in May 2000 of the murder of Carlos Gunn of McKoy Lane. Gunn was shot dead at his house on August 27, 1997.

McKoy was sentenced to life imprisonment and ordered to serve 25 years before he was eligible for parole.

The Privy Council held that Muirhead's lawyer failed at his trial to adduce evidence of his good character before the jury and to call Muirhead to give evidence on oath.

Unsworn statement

Muirhead had given an unsworn statement from the dock.

He said in his affidavit before the Privy Council that he would have preferred to give evidence but he was not advised of the consequences of not giving sworn evidence.

In remitting the case to the Court of Appeal, the Privy Council said "the board has been told in a number of appeals that there was, until recently, a widespread misunderstanding in the Caribbean jurisdiction about the necessity to adduce evidence of good character, so that the judge might give the appropriate direction to the jury, and the way in which it could be done".

Good character

The Privy Council said it was now made clear in a series of cases before it that it was important that a defendant, who is of good character in the legal sense, should be given the benefit of the direction.

The Privy Council said further that it was the affirmative duty of a defendant's counsel to ensure that the court was made aware of the defendant's character through direct evidence given on his behalf or through cross-examination of the prosecution witnesses.

"The judge's duty to give the direction only arises when such evidence is before the court," the Privy Council ruled.