CCJ restores verdict in Lusignan massacre trial

THE TRINIDAD-based Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) yesterday restored the 2013 acquittals of two Guyanese men for their involvement in the ‘Lusignan Massacre.’

In a decision delivered at its Henry Street, Port of Spain, court, the CCJ allowed the appeal of James Hyles and Mark Royden Williams, setting aside the decision of the Court of Appeal of Guyana, despite substantial procedural errors at their trial.

The Director of Public Prosecutions appealed the acquittals, under the newly amended Court of Appeal Act, on the grounds that there were material irregularities in the trial. The Guyana Court of Appeal agreed, allowed the appeal, overturned the verdicts of not guilty and sent the matter back to the High Court for a retrial.

The CCJ is Guyana’s final appellate court.

On 6 January 2008, gunmen went from house to house in the peaceful village of Lusignan in Guyana with high powered rifles and killed eleven persons, five of whom were children, as they slept in their homes.

Hyles and Williams were indicted on eleven counts of murder.

At trial, the judge allowed a request by Hyles’s attorney to question jurors, before they were sworn in, due to the widespread pre-trial publicity of the case.

In its decision, the CCJ judges noted that the trial judge as well as state and defence counsel actively participated in this exercise.

On appeal to the CCJ, both men urged the judges to allow the appeal on the basis that the

DPP’s new power to appeal an acquittal breached their constitutional right to the protection of

law.

In their view, the new law offended the principle against double jeopardy, which prevents

an accused person from being tried again on the same, or similar, charges and on the same

facts. However, the CCJ rejected this argument and reminded them that the wording

of Guyana’s Constitution contemplated the possibility of such an appeal.

The CCJ held that in principle, the rule against double jeopardy only protected acquittals which were affirmed by the appellate courts.

The court ruled that Hyles and Williams’ acquittals did not fall into that category.

“While the court did not agree fully with the findings of the court below, it found that there

were some material irregularities.”

The CCJ also held that “it could not with the required degree of certainty infer that the

acquittals were the result of the errors and that it was possible that the jury simply did not

believe, beyond reasonable doubt, the evidence presented by the state.”

Hyles would be the beneficiary of this judgment, Williams has been sentenced to death in relation to the Bartica massacre.