Attorney says appealing $1.8M payout to former accused would be wrong move

Government would be sending the “wrong message” if it chooses to appeal a recent court decision to award a man who was wrongly imprisoned for a decade close to $2 million.

That is the view of attorney-at-law, King’s Counsel Larry Smith, who has called on the State to pay Frank Gibson the monies owed him.

“Should the State consider appealing this award, my concern would be the message sent to us as a society about the State’s willingness to go for the jugular of a poor, innocent, black man who has endured great suffering at the State’s own hands. Throughout, there has been this sense of an old colonial authoritarian system saying, innocent or not, you cannot win,” the lawyer said.

His comments have come following last week’s decision by Justice Pamela Beckles to award Gibson $1.8 million in damages after she agreed that his constitutional rights were breached.

Gibson spent 10 years on remand for the murder of Francine Bolden. She died between January 15 and 16, 2002, at Pot House, St John.

In the ruling last Thursday Justice Beckles said it was appalling that despite the discovery of evidence six months into his remand that could have cleared Gibson, he remained in prison for an additional nine years.

Justice Beckles further said the money should be paid to Gibson “in order to maintain the integrity of our justice system”.

Efforts to reach Attorney General Dale Marshall to find out if Government plans to appeal the decision proved unsuccessful up to press time.

But Smith maintained it would not be in the “interest of fairness and justice” if an appeal was lodged.

He said Gibson had suffered enough.

“At this juncture in our history, a time in which we as a new Republic are focusing on institutional transformation, including within the legal and judicial systems, is it not morally and philosophically incongruent, for us to pursue reparations globally, for example, but resist restorative justice for an individual citizen?” Smith questioned.

“In the interests of fairness and justice, it is my hope that the State will be guided morally, ethically and legally in its decision-making regarding an appeal. Hopefully their decision will be one which allows Mr Gibson the opportunity, without further complication, to move forward with his life.

“This has been a long and arduous journey for my client to obtain justice. He has suffered greatly at the hands of the State. The award, though lower than what was asked for, does recognise the egregious treatment meted out to Mr Gibson by the State,” he added.

Another attorney-at-law, Lalu Hanuman stressed the importance of an individual’s liberty. He said any accused whose freedom was infringed upon deserved to be compensated.

Lalu Hanuman

“Liberty is an important thing and we as a former slave society should value liberty above all else. For somebody to be deprived of their freedom wrongfully is a very egregious thing and therefore, he’s certainly entitled to compensation, as are people who have had unreasonable delay in having their matters heard. I’ve got matters that are 11 and 12 years old still pending and clearly that is unacceptable,” Hanuman told Barbados TODAY.

randybennett@barbadostoday.bb