Latest update December 7th, 2024 1:49 AM
Jun 04, 2011 News
… As April session ends
Of the 194 cases that were scheduled to be heard during the recently completed April criminal assizes, only five were completed by High Court judges assigned to preside over these matters.
Two judges, Madame Justice Roxanne George and Madame Justice Dawn Gregory were assigned to sit in the April Criminal Assizes.
Each judge was assigned 97 cases. Three cases were completed by Madam Justice Roxanne George, and two by Madam Justice Dawn Gregory.
The three cases which Madam Justice Roxanne George completed were for the offences of murder and attempted murder.
In one of these murder cases, the accused pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter and was sentenced to 17 years’ imprisonment.
In the other case, the trial judge upheld a no case submission, which resulted in the jury returning a formal verdict of not guilty against the accused.
In the third case, the accused was indicted for the alternative charges of attempted murder and felonious wounding; hence, there were two counts on the indictments.
The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions said that surprisingly, the jury returned a unanimous verdict of not guilty in relation to both counts despite positive and compelling evidence by the victim.
The two cases that Madame Justice Dawn Gregory heard were for the offence of murder, and in both of these cases the accused plead not guilty and there was a trial. In the first case, the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict and for the offence of murder there must be a unanimous verdict.
Owing to this, the trial for this accused has to be done de novo. In the other case, the jury, after deliberating, convicted the accused for the lesser offence of manslaughter. The trial judge sentenced the accused to eight years imprisonment.
Jail delivery was done last Thursday by Madame Justice Roxanne George, bringing to an end the April 2011 Criminal Assizes for Demerara.
Jail delivery is for prisoners awaiting trial in the Demerara and Essequibo Assizes. According to the list presented by the Director of Prisons at the jail delivery, there are 175 persons in the prisons awaiting trial in the Demerara and Essequibo courts. Of the 175 persons, 53 have been indicted to be tried in the High Court.
In addition to the cases for these indictments there were an additional 141indictments listed to be heard by the judges of the April Criminal Assizes, bringing the total to 194.
The State did not file any appeals for any of these cases for this Session.
At the same time that the Demerara Assizes was being held there was an Assize in Essequibo, which, unlike Demerara, only has two sessions between the months of January and June. The first one was in February and the other was in May.
No case was heard at the Essequibo High Court until
February 15, when the February Assizes commenced. One case for the offence of manslaughter was then heard by Justice William Ramlal. In this case, a no-case submission was upheld by the trial judge who then directed the jury to return a formal verdict of not guilty against the accused.
Since the commencement of the May 2011 Criminal Assize for Essequibo two cases have so far been done by Justice Franklin Holder.
This next Criminal Assize will commence on October 25.
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