‘Did he have intent to kill?’

WESTERN BUREAU:

The Family Court’s decision last week to free a teen of murder charges following the stabbing death of a schoolmate earlier this year has triggered a wave of criticism. But some seasoned attorneys-at-law contend that the decision was likely grounded in proper legal procedure.

The former accused, who was 14 years old when 15-year-old Irwin High School student Raniel Plummer was fatally stabbed in the chest on April 18, was represented in court by Maurice McCurdy.

Peter Champagnie, KC, told The Sunday Gleaner that the prosecution would have had to prove two key things in order to sustain the matter before the court.

“The first ingredient is not just the physical act of the stabbing; you would have to prove that at the time it was done, it was not done in self-defence. In other words, it is not murder if there is clear evidence that at the time of the killing, the person acted in self-defence, and it may very well have been a situation where the statements that were collected by the police and the persons who witnessed the incident spoke to the aspect of self-defence,” said Champagnie.

“Also, is it a case where the person who is alleged to have committed the offence was not properly identified and there is no means of identification? In either instance, I am absolutely sure that the judge would be guided, not just by what an attorney is representing before the court to be, but the judge would apply the principles of law in relation to the present case to be determined,” Champagnie added.

Fellow attorney-at-law Leonard Green likewise pointed out that a murder case, which is usually tried by a jury, must determine what the defendant’s motivation was at the time of the killing.

“One of the major defences to murder is self-defence, that the accused person acted in self-defence, and that is usually the main element in cases of that nature. What you look at is the evidence that exists against him; did he do it unlawfully or maliciously, or did he have intent to kill? Those are the things that the court will look at to determine whether there is a case to be had,” said Green.

Police reports said that on the fateful day, Plummer was approached and attacked by a group of students after exiting the grounds of the St James-based school. During the assault, which reportedly stemmed from an earlier altercation, Plummer was stabbed in the chest by the 14-year-old male student and was transported to the Cornwall Regional Hospital, where he later died.

Last week, Plummer’s mother, Stacey-Ann Dunkley, expressed dismay that the accused was not given any custodial time for her son’s death.

However, shortly after the tragedy, McCurdy had noted that his client was not the one who brought the knife into the incident. He also told The Gleaner that he would be asking the director of public prosecutions to discontinue the case as his client “was the one that was attacked and called upon to defend himself”.

Such court outcomes are not new.

In December 2011, Maxine Tugwell-Brown was freed of a murder charge because the required elements were absent. She was acquitted of her husband Junior Brown’s 2009 murder in the St James Circuit Court after her attorney argued that she stabbed Brown in an act of self-defence during a fight instigated by the deceased. He further said that the prosecution failed to prove Tugwell-Brown intended to kill her husband, with whom she reportedly had a history of domestic abuse.

In another case, Joyce Leslie was acquitted in the St Thomas Circuit Court in December 2018 following her murder trial in relation to her husband, Jamaica Defence Force Private Andrew Leslie, who went missing on October 11, 2008.

The prosecution argued that Leslie paid a man $30,000 to kill her husband and that she discussed the killing with a spiritual healer, who reportedly instructed her to write it on a piece of paper. However, her lawyer Hensley Williams submitted that no evidence was produced to show where and how Private Leslie died, and a handwriting expert testified, after analysing a copy of the paper on which Mrs Leslie reportedly wrote the information for her spiritual healer, that it could not be conclusively determined that she wrote it.

In the meantime, Champagnie expressed discomfort at the term ‘thrown out’ being used to refer to the dismissal of cases without convictions, as in the case of Plummer’s death.

“I have a difficulty sometimes with the terminology of cases being ‘thrown out’. It connotes a different meaning that does not go well in terms of an appreciation of the justice system and the principles of justice,” said Champagnie.

“I do not want the impression to be created that the matter was just called up and thrown out based on what the lawyer said. Certain principles of law would have been considered and the result, being what it is, would be based on the absence of certain critical ingredients needed to formulate a charge going forward in terms of the offence of murder,” he added.

christopher.thomas@gleanerjm.com