By Racquel Porter
Two members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force who were convicted for the 2008 execution-style killing of a man in Kingston, have been freed by the Court of Appeal.
Police Constables Christobel Smith and Garth Davis were convicted in November 2019 for the murder of Omar Marshall, a resident of Blake Road in Kingston.
Smith was found guilty of manslaughter and was sentenced to six years behind bars, while Davis was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life.
He was ordered to serve 15 years before becoming eligible for parole.
Among the grounds of appeal filed by their attorneys Kemar Robinson and Deneve Barnett was that the account given by the eye-witness conflicts with that of the post-mortem report.
The attorneys also argued that there were several material inconsistencies at the trial which were never explained and as such any retrial into the matter would be unfair to the appellants as it would leave a number of issues unresolved.
Mr. Robinson and Miss Barnett submitted that a retrial sixteen years after the incident occurred would cause undue hardship on the policemen who have been on suspension from the JCF since 2014.
Eyewitnesses had testified that in October 2009, Mr. Marshall was in his front yard when four cops held and dragged him to the back of the property where he was shot.
The policemen claimed they fired their guns in self-defence.
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