Senior Reporter
derek.achong@guardian.co.tt
After spending almost three decades in prison, eight men, convicted of the murder of the brother of deceased drug kingpin Dole Chadee, tasted freedom last evening.
Freedom for Michael “Rat” Maharaj, Samuel Maharaj, Damien Ramiah, Bobby Ramiah, Seenath Ramiah, Daniel Gopaul, Richard Huggins and Mark Jaikeran was the culmination of years of litigation that ended in them being re-sentenced by High Court Judge Geoffrey Henderson yesterday.
A ninth man, Leslie Huggins, was also re-sentenced alongside the group, but did not earn his immediate release, as he is still serving a separate life sentence for the 1996 murder of his cousin, Clint Huggins, whose testimony, after his death, led to the conviction of Chadee and members of his gang for murdering four members of a Piparo family and their eventual executions.
The nine men and a tenth man, Junior Phillip, who is also serving a life sentence for murdering Huggins after he left witness protection to visit relatives and celebrate Carnival, were accused of murdering Thackoor Boodram in December 1997 and were convicted of the crime in 2002.
Huggins will earn his release after he is re-sentenced for his cousin’s murder, while Phillip still has to be re-sentenced for both.
Guardian Media understands the eight men were released from the prisons where they were being kept hours after the order.
Boodram, a pig farmer, was kidnapped from his home in south Trinidad on December 20, 1997. A ransom was demanded by his abductors, but ten days later his head was found in a whiskey box at the Caroni Cremation Site.
In 2006, the mandatory death penalties the men received upon their convictions were commuted to life imprisonment based on the landmark Privy Council ruling in the Jamaican case of Pratt and Morgan, which stated that capital punishment could only be carried out within five years of conviction.
In June 2011, the State’s main witness in their case, Junior Grandison, gave a sworn statement in which he claimed to have been coerced by Boodram’s other brother, Pandlal, into implicating all the men except Phillip, who was identified by another witness.
The two allegedly met in prison, while Grandison was awaiting trial for the murders of Ian George and Walter Regis and the attempted murder of Courtney Reid.
The charges against Grandison were dropped in exchange for his testimony against the group.
In 2014, the President referred the matter to the Court of Appeal to consider whether Grandison’s new claims could be admitted.
The Court of Appeal refused to admit the fresh evidence, as it noted that Grandison refused to testify before them during a hearing of the appeal in 2017.
They also rejected recorded telephone conversations between Michael Maharaj and Grandison, which the men were contending proved that Grandison had admitted to fabricating the case.
While the judges agreed that it was Grandison in the recordings, they said he was being led on by Maharaj.
In October 2021, the Privy Council rejected their appeal over the Court of Appeal’s decision.
“The Court of Appeal did not apply too high a test of credibility when deciding whether to admit the fresh evidence. The Court analysis was comprehensive and necessarily robust,” Dame Julia Macur, who wrote the written judgment, said.
Although the Privy Council refused the group’s attempt to overturn their convictions, it eventually upheld their appeal over their life sentences based on their landmark ruling in an appeal of 82 former death row inmates, whose sentences were similarly commuted.
In that case, the Privy Council agreed with the Court of Appeal’s view that such convicts should not have been given blanket sentences of life imprisonment but rather should have been given defined terms of imprisonment based on the unique circumstances of their cases.
In re-sentencing the group yesterday, Justice Henderson began with a starting point of 33 years in prison.
“In this case, the various reports submitted on behalf of the prisoners, suggests that each of them is capable of rehabilitation. I, therefore, do not find that this case warrants a sentence of life imprisonment,” he said.
Justice Henderson then applied one to three-year discounts on their sentences, based on reports from prison officials on their potential risk of re-offending upon their release, the rehabilitative programmes they participated in while incarcerated and their criminal records before being charged with the crime.
Michael Maharaj was the only one who received a one-year discount, as Justice Henderson noted that he showed no remorse for his actions and did not participate in any prison programmes.
Justice Henderson also had to consider whether the men should receive any relief for the failure of prison authorities to conduct sentence reviews every four years, after their sentences were commuted in 2006, as required under the prison rules.
The legal issue was raised by the men’s lawyers, Edward Fitzgerald, KC, and Jagdeo Singh, before the Privy Council.
Henderson noted that the failure did not constitute a separate breach of their constitutional right to protection of the law, liberty and not to be deprived thereof without due process.
“In principle, however, failure to conduct such reviews may contribute to the breach of this constitutional right and it would do so where the failure to conduct the reviews deprived the prisoners of an earlier possible date of release, than would be the case had there been no such breach,” he said.
Justice Henderson issued a declaration that their right had been breached and applied the full one-third discount on the sentences they could have received if remission for good behaviour under the prison rules was considered during the sentence reviews.
“In fashioning an appropriate discount, I consider the true measure of what the prisoner was unconstitutionally deprived of, is the possibility of an earlier date of release under the prison rules,” he said.
He then ordered that the time they spent in prison be deducted from their sentences.
While Justice Henderson did not perform calculations to determine whether they had already completed their sentences or still had time to serve, Guardian Media understands that the group’s legal team wrote to acting Prisons Commissioner Deopersad Ramoutar, calling for the immediate release of the eight men as based on his (Justice Henderson) ruling, including on remissions, they would have already completed their sentences.
The men were represented by Rajiv Persad, SC, Jagdeo Singh, Keith Scotland, Daniel Khan, Asha Watkins-Montserin, Peter Carter, Vanita Ramroop, Ajesh Sumessar, Jade Martinez, Keisha Kydd-Hannibal, Laurina Ramkaran, Harrynarine Singh, Gabriel Hernandez and Keston Lewis.
The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) was represented by Brandon Sookoo and Dillion Martin.
