Despite being faced with extreme harassment and the murder of close friends, Walter Rodney was not driven to violence, according to his widow Dr Patricia Rodney, who also testified yesterday that she had never heard of any links between her husband and guns for 30 years.
At the beginning of the sixth session of the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the June 13, 1980 death of Walter Rodney, his wife took the stand at the Supreme Court Law Library and maintained that her husband was not a violent man, no matter the situation he found himself in. She further explained that he was never aggressive or argumentative in the face of difficulties or danger.
Patricia Rodney was slated to continue her testimony until 2pm yesterday but was forced to leave the stand an hour earlier after she broke down – for the second time – as she described life after her husband’s death. Though she tried to speak through the tears, the woman’s voice was noticeably breaking; she eventually took a seat before Chairman of the commission Sir Richard Cheltenham