The state yesterday lost its appeal to overturn the acquittal of Odinga Greene, who was cleared by a High Court judge in 2005 for the 1999 murder of Sandra Harvey.
Chancellor of the Judiciary (ag) Justice Yonette Cummings-Edwards and Justices of Appeal Dawn Gregory and Rishi Persaud affirmed trial judge Jainarayan Singh’s ruling that Greene had no case to answer.
Justice Singh upheld a no-case submission in favour of Greene on May 11, 2005, at the close of the prosecution’s case.
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), however, argued that there was sufficient evidence on which a reasonable jury, properly directed, might have convicted the then accused.
In its notice of appeal, filed on May 20, 2005, the DPP asked the Appeal Court to determine whether the trial judge was correct in law, in ruling that there was not sufficient evidence on which a reasonable jury, properly directed might have convicted Greene.
Greene was represented by attorney Nigel Hughes.
Harvey was found in a valley at Wisroc, Linden, with her hands tied behind her back, her mouth gagged and her body propped up against a tree stump.
Greene was later arrested and charged. In 2004, he was convicted and sentenced to death but he later successfully appealed the verdict and won the right to a second trial.
In 2005, at the end of the second trial, he was freed after it was found that the testimony of witnesses had been riddled with inconsistencies.
Greene was also charged with the 2007 murder of Nazaline Mohamed, for which he was also freed in 2012 following a High Court trial. Mohamed’s decomposing remains were found in a coal pit at Wisroc, Linden.
