After four years in prison for rape, court frees farmer
February 25, 2009
Jamaica's Court of Appeal has thrown out the rape conviction of a St Thomas man because it adjudged that police investigators failed to gather key evidence. The appeal process had also been severely delayed because of bungling in the procurement of legal representation.
Albert Edmondson, farmer, of Mount Lebanus, St Thomas, had been in prison for four years before his appeal was heard. He had given notice 11 days after he was sentenced in March 2005 to 20 years' imprisonment that he would appeal the verdict. He was convicted of burglary, illegal possession of firearm and rape.
The court pointed out that it took over a year for the transcript of the proceedings to reach the Court of Appeal.
"It appears that there was some difficulty in assigning counsel on a legal-aid basis as the record shows that the matter was not listed for hearing until June 2007."
The court also pointed out that in June 2007, the case had to be taken off the list for further effort to be made to assign counsel.
Call for availability
In handing down the judgment this month, the Court of Appeal, comprising president Justice Seymour Panton and Justices Howard Cooke and Karl Harrison, said, "We take this opportunity to encourage more members of the legal profession to make themselves available to accept legal-aid assignments in the Court of Appeal."
The court referred to flaws in the police investigation and pointed out that although there were allegations that Edmondson had removed louvre blades from a dwelling house and replaced them, the windows had not been dusted for fingerprints....
Author: Barbara Gayle
Source: Jamaica Gleaner
