(Jamaica Gleaner) Some Caribbean countries including Jamaica have been criticised by the United Kingdom Privy Council for failing to provide legal aid for prisoners after their murder appeals have been dismissed by the Court of Appeal.
The Privy Council was commenting as it granted permission for two Jamaican men to pursue their appeal against their murder convictions.
The men’s application for leave to appeal was dismissed by the Court of Appeal in 2003.
Although the Privy Council said the rules required that the application for leave to appeal should have been filed within 56 days after the appeal was dismissed, it said it was granting the application in the interest of justice.
The men are Carlos Hamilton and Jason Lewis who were convicted in 2001 of the murder of Saleem Hines. Evidence was given at the trial that the two men chopped Hines to death. They were sentenced to life imprisonment and ordered to serve 25 years before becoming eligible for parole.
Pro bono representation
An application for leave to appeal was not filed before the Privy Council until July last year. They are being represented pro bono and are being assisted to get free legal representation by solicitor Juliet Oury of the the law firm Oury Clark in England. Oury has been assisting Jamaican prisoners with free legal service for the last 10 years.
The Privy Council said it “remains commonplace in the case of criminal appeals coming before the Privy Council from jurisdictions in the Caribbean for periods of years rather than days to elapse before the application is made”.
It said further that the reason for the delay was that most, if not all, prisoners in the Caribbean region were left without legal representation when proceedings in their Court of Appeal had been concluded.
“Legal aid is not generally available at that stage and on the rare occasions when it is available the facilities provided are very limited. Almost all the prisoners have to resort to pro bono assistance which is not easily found,” the Privy Council said.
Hamilton and Lewis were convicted of non-capital murder and the Privy Council said that it was harder for non-capital murder prisoners to find pro bono assistance than the prisoners on death row who are given priority.
A date is to be set for the men’s appeal to be heard by the Privy Council.
