KRAAL TRIAL: DAY 19 - Prosecution barred from submitting statements
November 25, 2005
THE PROSECUTION failed in its bid yesterday to tender into evidence statements which Senior Superintendent Reneto Adams and the five other policemen charged with murder had given in 2003 about the controversial shooting at Kraal, Clarendon.
"My ruling is that in the interest of justice, these statements must be excluded under the circumstances," Chief Justice Lensley Wolfe said after lengthy submissions from the defence and the prosecution.
Prosecutor Terrence Williams had sought to tender the statements through retired Assistant Commissioner of Police, Osbourne Dyer, who was testifying at the trial of the six policemen charged with the murder of four civilians at Kraal on May 7, 2003.
SUPERVISING INVESTIGATIONS
Dyer testified in the Home Circuit Court that, while he was still a police officer, he got an assignment from then Commissioner of Police Francis Forbes to supervise investigations into the fatal shootings of the civilians. He spoke to SSP Adams and requested statements from him and other members involved in the fatal shootings.
He said he advised the accused men, when he requested the statements, that they were not obliged to give the statements.
When Dyer was shown the statements from the policemen, the Chief Justice said Mr. Williams would have to satisfy him that the accused waived their privilege and the lawyers had permission to hand them over.
Mr. Williams argued that the lawyer and client privilege did not arise because the statements were intended to be handed over to the investigator.
The defence lawyers objected to the statements being tendered into evidence, and pointed out that when the policemen gave the statements, they were not told they were suspects in the case and if they were, then they should have been cautioned before they gave the statements.
SANCTIONS WOULD FLOW...
Author: Barbara Gayle
Source: Jamaica Gleaner
