Lawyers seeking compensation for ex-cop after murder conviction overturned by Privy Council

 

One of the attorneys for the former policeman whose murder conviction was overturned by the Privy Council says the team has started the process of seeking compensation for their client's almost 20 year ordeal.

 

In the ruling handed down on Monday, the UK law lords agreed that a substantial miscarriage of justice had occurred and that the conviction of former police constable Lescene Edwards cannot stand.

 

It also said a constitutional right to a fair trial within a reasonable time was breached by the 10-year delay between his arrest and trial.

 

The UK Privy Council has asked the Jamaican authorities to consider compensating the former police constable for the miscarriage of justice which occurred. 

 

The former policeman was in 2013 sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his girlfriend Aldonna Harris-Vasquez in 2003.

 

She died from a single gunshot wound to the head and a suicide note was found at the scene.

 

The prosecution's handwriting expert had testified during the trial that Edwards wrote the purported suicide note. 

 

Edwards was found guilty and later appealed his sentence on the question of  whether the ten-year delay between the incident and the trial contravened his rights under the Constitution. 

 

The Court of Appeal dismissed the matter, despite agreeing that the trial delay was lengthy and there had been several instances of failure in the investigation of the case. 

 

Edwards took the case to the UK Privy Council and included fresh evidence which was accepted by the law lords.

 

The fresh evidence included that when the fatal shot was fired, Harris Vasquez was seated on the bathroom floor with her back against the closed door. 

 

The judges said there is no evidence to explain how the defendant could have managed to kill Mrs Harris Vasquez in the confined space of  the bathroom, then move the body, open the door and appear a very short time afterwards in the living room without any blood being seen on him or his clothes, and without any bloodstains or bloodied footprints being found anywhere outside the bathroom.

 

Attorney Valerie Neita Robertson has indicated that the legal team will now be pushing for a significant sum in compensation, considering Mr. Edwards' loss of salary for almost 20 years, the fact that his two children had to grow up without him over that period of time, his pain and suffering, as well as the shame and damage to his reputation. 

 

"You know that he was without salary for the 20 years, the pain and suffering, and the fact that his two children had to grow up without him over the period of time; the shame and the damage to his reputation, we will have to factor all of that in. But the same effort we used in this matter, we shall be applying it in that.