The Court of Appeal yesterday upheld the conviction of three former Guyana Defence Force (GDF) Coast Guards for the 2009 murder of Bartica gold miner, Dwieve Kant Ramdass but set aside the death sentences imposed upon them.
Instead, it imposed life sentences and ordered that deductions be made therefrom for the time the appellants: Sherwyn Harte, Devon Gordon and Deon Greenidge spent in pre-trial custody.
Harte, the most senior of the trio, will be eligible for parole after serving 25 years. Greenidge and Gordon, on the other hand, will be eligible after 18 years.
The appeal was heard by acting Chancellor, Yonette Cummings-Edwards along with Justices of Appeal Dawn Gregory and Rishi Persaud.
In handing down the ruling, Justice Gregory noted that the death sentence was set aside since it breached the defendants’ fundamental human rights and is therefore unconstitutional.
The Judge noted that the court has noticed that the defendants had been incarcerated since Aigust 2009 and their trial only concluded in 2013.
She explained that the implication of this is that it came after amendments had been made to the Criminal Law Offences Act in 2010. Prior to the amendments, a conviction for murder was only punishable by death.
With the amendments, the Chancellor said that judges now have a discretion to impose jail terms, while noting that the death sentence is now reserved for death resulting from specific circumstances.
However, the judge made it clear that while the death sentences were being set aside, the conviction itself for the capital offence has been upheld.
Following a High Court trial back in 2013 a jury had found Hart, Greenidge and Gordon guilty of murdering Ramdass. Justice Franklyn Holder would subsequently sentence them to death.
The prosecution’s case had been that the three threw Ramdass overboard between August 20 and August 22, 2009, at Caiman Hole, East Bank Essequibo, after robbing him of $17 million he had been paid for a quantity of gold he sold to two men.
The defendants’ lawyers had moved to the Court of Appeal on the grounds that their sentence was unconstitutional and excessive .
Hart and Greenidge were represented by attorney, Nigel Hughes while attorney Latchmie Rahamat represented Gordon.
