Judge orders three of the 'Grenada Thirteen' released
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| Published on Thursday, June 28, 2007 |
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ST. GEORGE’S Grenada: The judge hearing the “Grenada 13” case, Justice Francis Belle of Barbados, on Wednesday ordered the immediate release of Christopher Stroude, Lester Redhead and Cecil Prime.
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| Three of the Greneda 13 and their attorney greet media upon release from Her Majesty Prison. Photo by Michael Bascombe |
The judgment was delivered to a packed court, and Caribbean Net News correspondent said there were smiling and sad faces afterwards.
On the outside of the Grenada Trade Centre some of families of victims of October 19, 1983 were apparently angry after the ruling, saying they were not satisfied and the judgement was not fair and more years could have been applied.
During the re-sentencing hearing, the prosecution had indicated that there had been little evidence against Prime, Stroud, and Redhead to identify them as part of the 1983 executions.
At approximately 11:30 am reporters arrived and waited at the gate of the prison for the three released men.
However, after long deliberation, it was reported by one of the prison officers that the men’s release was on hold pending a statement from the Attorney General. The three men were eventually released just after 4pm.
While three of the thirteen have been released, the others, which include Bernard Coard, Sewlyn Strachan, Liam James, Callitus Bernard, Ewart Layne, Leon Cornwall, Hudson Austin, John Ventour, Dave Bartholomew and Colville McBarnette, have been resentenced for up to 40 years in prison - 35 years of which most of them have already served.
The Grenada 13 (originally the Grenada 17) were convicted and sentenced to death in 1986, replaced by life imprisonment in 1991. However, on February 7 this year, the Privy Council ordered that they be re-sentenced.
In December 2006, three members of the then Grenada 17, namely, Andy Mitchell, Vincent Joseph and Cosmos Richardson, were released after serving thirty years in prison for eleven counts of manslaughter.
The men were freed under the law governing sentencing, which states that inmates’ sentences are reduced by one third if they have been deemed as having been industrious and well behaved.
The men thus qualified for the reduction in their sentences and were released after spending twenty years in prison.
A written judgment in the case of the “Grenada 13” is to be delivered in two weeks' time. |
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