The National Newspaper of St. Vincent and the Grenadines
FRIDAY,
JANUARY 24, 2014
by HAYDN HUGGINS
Attorney Kay BacchusBrowne acknowledges that the issue of sentence needs to be dealt with.
VOLUME 108, No.04
THE CASE OF THIS COUNTRY’S lone death row inmate, Patrick Lovelace, is again before the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal, as his lawyers move to save him from possible execution. The former long-distance runner of Belmont was sentenced to death February 26, 2010, for the July 2002 murder of 12-year-old female pannist, Lokeisha Nanton of Sion Hill. A 12-member jury had found him guilty July 15, 2009, following a retrial ordered by the Court of Appeal. On Monday, Lovelace’s attorney Kay Bacchus-Browne, in conjunction with the British Law Firm Simmons, Muirhead and Burton, filed an application before the Court of Appeal for extension of time to file an appeal against Lovelace’s sentence.
The British Law Firm is representing Lovelace at the Privy Council, but the issue of sentence had not been dealt with at the regional level. In a judgment handed down March 2012, the Court of Appeal dismissed Lovelace’s appeal against conviction, but U.K-based lawyer Shiraz Aziz, who had conducted the appeal, did not appeal the sentence. To date, Lovelace’s conviction and sentence stand. Bacchus-Browne, who was retained to take Lovelace’s matter to the Privy Council, told THE VINCENTIAN on Tuesday, “The matter is still before the Privy Council, but the issue of sentence needs to be dealt with. If we don’t exhaust all possible avenues in the interest of justice, it is like sending him to the gallows.” Bacchus-Browne pointed out that it was an omission on
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Patrick Lovelace remains on death row as his lawyers prepare for another round in his appeal. Left: U.K-based lawyer Shiraz Aziz did not appeal the sentence.
the part of Aziz not to have appealed the sentence. The lawyer stressed, “This matter is extremely serious because it concerns the life of our client.”
Bacchus-Browne had told THE VINCENTIAN in June 2012 that she had written to the relevant authorities, including the Prime Minister and the Governor General, requesting that Lovelace’s execution be stayed pending the outcome of an appeal to the Privy Council. Nanton’s nude body was found hanging from a mango tree in an area at Sion Hill called London Road, on the morning of July 2, 2002. An autopsy showed she was strangled.
Vehicle involved in Hector’s death VINCENTIAN on Tuesday, James said that, based on the HEAD OF THE CRIMINAL result of Hector’s autopsy, “we Investigations Unit, Assistant (police) believe that the Superintendent of Police deceased was struck by a Sydney James, has indicated vehicle.” that a vehicle might have The autopsy indicated that been involved in the death of he died from ‘crash injuries to Rudolph Hector, a 54-year-old chest and abdomen, and mechanic of bleeding due to multiple Fountain/Brighton, whose injuries’. body was found on the public THE VINCENTIAN’s front road outside Huffles Ranch, in page story on January 10th, Brighton, on January 6. entitled ‘Was Hector Killed?’, Speaking to THE indicated that, based on by KENVILLE HORNE
ASP Sydney James, Head of the CID, has advanced a view that a vehicle might have been involved in Rudolph Hector’s death.
reliable information, something heavy would have had to have pressed on Hector’s body to cause the injuries visible on his body. The story referred also reported that members of Hector’s family “believed” that he was killed. Rudolph Hector lifeless body ASP James echoed the showed clear injuries to his Hector family’s appeal for chest and abdomen. persons who might have information relating to Investigations into Hector’s Rudolph’s death, to contact death are continuing. the police.