Days after speaking about delays in the judicial system, Chief Justice Leslie Haynes has stressed that for the Court of Appeal to properly carry out its functions, submissions must be filed on time.
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He made the comments as the court adjourned the hearing of a murder appeal on Thursday.
Rashayne Aneil Blenman, of Risk Road, Fitts Village, St James, had pleaded guilty to the non-capital murder of Mark Walton, also of Fitts Village, on August 4, 2014. Romario Antonio Clarke, also of Risk Road, was subsequently found guilty of the same offence. Justice Carlisle Greaves ordered that the tariff in Blenman’s case should be 30 years. He deducted one-third for his guilty plea, as well as the 2 635 days or seven years, two months he spent on remand. He also credited him for the delay in the matter.
Life imprisonment
He sentenced Blenman to life imprisonment and ordered that he spend a minimum of 11.5 years before he could be considered eligible for release.
The judge determined that 30 years was the appropriate tariff for Clarke. He deducted the 1 674 days, or four-anda- half years, he spent on remand, as well as nine months for the delay.
He then sentenced Clarke to life imprisonment and ordered him to serve a minimum of 24 years, nine months before he could be considered for release.
However, Blenman, through his counsel Andrew Pilgrim, SC, and Summer Hassell, appealed his sentence, while Clarke, through his attorneys Angella Mitchell-Gittens, SC, and Kristin Vanderpool, appealed his conviction and sentence.
Chief Justice Haynes, who presided with Justices of Appeal William Chandler and Victoria Charles-Clarke, said the court could not continue to set down cases and not hear them.
Last minute
He added that if submissions were filed at the last minute or after agreed upon dates, the judges might proceed with the appeal even though they had not fully read the submissions.
He noted the effect of that was the judges might realise they had a query and “you are no longer in front of us”.
The Chief Justice said dates were always given with the consent of the attorneys involved.
He pointed out that a number of the criminal appeals were also only challenging sentence.
“We need to remove that knock-on effect to improve the efficiency. We need to understand the importance of trial date certainty. We have to give the court the opportunity to properly prepare for the matter.
“This is something we need to achieve. So please, if we can’t meet the deadline of three weeks before, we will have to adjourn and put something else in its place and keep the wheels of justice turning,” he said.
He then adjourned the appeals until February 5 next year.
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