Keith Clarke case: Justice delayed and denied?

By Racquel Porter    

 

"A grand case of justice delayed being justice denied" is how attorney Leonard Green, who represented Keith Clarke's family, described the freeing of three soldiers who have been on trial since May for the murder of the accountant.

 

Lance corporals Greg Tinglin, Odel Buckley, and Private Arnold Henry were freed on Thursday morning after Justice Dale Palmer ruled that they had no case to answer.

 

Justice Palmer freed the soldiers on the basis that the evidence as it relates to identification is below the standard for him to call upon the defence to answer.

 

Last month one of the prosecution's witnesses told the court that the log books pertaining to the distribution of guns and ammunition at the Jamaica Defence Force and the then record keeper are missing.

 

Mr. Green says the case crumbled because of the absence of evidence to connect the soldiers to the actual killing of Mr. Clarke. 

 

"Essentially, [the JDF] certainly would not give evidence against their colleagues, but what it ends up as is a failure to make the evidence available. It's simply the nexus between the numbers - because the soldiers were identified by numbers - and the name is said to have been in a book, a document which is not available. Fourteen years ago that this matter came before the court, and it is really a grand case of justice delayed being justice denied," the attorney lamented. 

 

In the meantime, Mr. Green said the Clarkes are disappointed but resolute that they provided truthful evidence.

 

He said the family is hoping that there can be some level of compensation for the loss they suffered. 

 

Defence attorney Linton Gordon, who represented Private Arnold Henry, said he is hoping the civil case in the Supreme Court will proceed expeditiously and end favourably for the Clarkes. 

 

"The case was put on hold pending the criminal matter, which is a ruling in the court that you ought not to proceed to conclusion with a civil matter pending a criminal matter. So, now that the criminal matter is out of the way... [all] I can say is that it ought to go forward now and hopefully to a conclusion to the satisfaction of Mrs. Clarke," he said. 

 

Keith Clarke, a 64-year-old accountant, was shot multiple times inside the master bedroom of his Kirkland Close, St. Andrew home on May 27, 2010, during a police-military operation to apprehend then fugitive drug lord Christopher 'Dudus' Coke.

 

Mr. Clarke sustained 25 gunshot wounds, 16 of which were to his lower back. His other injuries included gunshot wounds to his face, chest, and forearm.