Donald Rodney has petitioned the Court of Appeal (CoA) to investigate what he has called a farcical appeal of his 1982 conviction for possession of explosives.
Rodney, brother of slain Guyanese political activist and historian Dr. Walter Rodney, last month launched a vigil in front of the CoA in protest of a perceived inordinate delay in the hearing of his substantive appeal.
Speaking to Stabroek News yesterday, Rodney explained that the petition was aimed at prompting an investigation into a Full Court appeal of his conviction, which was improperly made, and eventually dismissed.
The appeal to the Full Court was dismissed in default of Rodney’s and his attorney-at-law’s attendance, while the appeal to the CoA, which Rodney wants to proceed with, was filed in 1982. He has said that it was not filed by him.
Rodney, joined by supporters, commenced the vigil last month in protest of an alleged inordinate delay by the court in fixing a date for the hearing of an appeal against his 1982 conviction for possession of explosives.
The appeal was filed in 1982, but Rodney says he had fled Guyana seeking asylum as he believed he was being persecuted. It is believed that Walter Rodney was assassinated on June 13th 1980, with the complicity of the then Peoples National Congress (PNC) government.
Donald Rodney had successfully appealed the Full Court’s dismissal of the ‘farcical appeal’ in the CoA before of acting Chief Justice Roxane George and Justices of Appeal Rishi Persaud and Dawn Gregory. During the hearing of the notice of appeal, which was treated as the substantive appeal, the panel, as well as counsel Dionne McCammon, who represents the state through the Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), agreed that in light of the indictable nature of the offence Rodney was charged with committing, it was the Court of Appeal as opposed to the Full Court, which had jurisdiction to hear the appeal.
As a result, acting Chief Justice George had said that Rodney’s substantive appeal to his conviction, filed before the Court of Appeal since 1982, will now be allowed to take its normal course.
Rodney was then given 14 days to file his grounds of appeal. The bail he was granted in 1982 was held to still be in place.
However, Rodney says that he has checked with the CoA on several occasions since, and has been told that a date has not been fixed for hearing. He said that an employee of the CoA’s registry had said that the court was not satisfied with the amount of documents which had been found thus far, and was looking for additional documents.
Rodney, however, says that he was able to acquire many of the documents which pertain to this matter, and sees no reason why an institution of the state would have a more difficult time than a citizen.
