Hearing of death row convicts application begins tomorrow
By Courtney Jones
Nearly a week after convicted Essequibo murderers Noel Thomas and Abdool Salim Yasseen had their death warrants signed by President Bharrat Jagdeo read to them, what might be their last hope to cheat the hangman's noose will begin at the High Court tomorrow. The two men, convicted for killing Yasseen's 27-year-old brother Abdool Kaleem Yasseen in 1987, were due to hang on Monday, but were granted a four-day stay of execution on Sunday night by Justice Winston Moore. Two lawyers from Trinidad and Tobago, Reggie Armour and Douglas Mendes are among a battery of lawyers, including Nigel Hughes, Stephen Fraser, Teni Housty, Mohabeer Nandlall and Nicole Pierre, who filed an ex-parte application on behalf of the convicted murderers on Sunday. Observers say that tomorrow is virtually the last chance the lawyers have to convince Justice Moore that their two clients should not face the death penalty. The West Indian-trained Trinidadian attorneys were admitted to the local bar on Monday, their petitions being presented by Hughes on behalf of Mendes, and Fraser on behalf of Armour. A source at the Attorney General's Chambers told Stabroek News that up to yesterday the state was preparing its case to respond to the complaints raised in the supporting affidavit to the ex-parte application. Lawyers for the condemned men are claiming that the death penalty is unconstitutional; that the two men were not given an opportunity to be heard by the Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy and that there was undue delay in the carrying out of the death sentence. In a television interview last week, Attorney General, Charles Ramson, had said that the Court of Appeal was convinced that the two men had received a fair trial and saw no reason why they should not face the death penalty. Meanwhile, the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) has joined Amnesty International in saying that the decision by President Jagdeo to resume hanging is morally and politically wrong. "The choice of Yasseen and Thomas reeks of the need for a racial balancing act, rather than any careful consideration that their hanging will serve any deterrent purpose," the GHRA charged. In a statement entitled "an admission of failure", the executive committee of the GHRA said that adding "state-approved violence" to the criminal, racial and political violence of the past two years, was the last thing Guyana needed. "Justifying the re-introduction of hanging by reference to curbing violent crime is nonsense since violent criminals are not being apprehended. "The long list of unresolved murders and violent crimes...the inability to convict any major drug dealer, the absence of even one instance of long sentences being handed down to criminal gangs raises the obvious question of how hanging can be a deterrent if criminals are not caught," the GHRA statement said. It also referred to the 30,000 gun licences applications every year describing this as an eloquent testimony of people's lack of confidence in government's ability to protect them. The GRHA is of the view that the selection of Thomas and Yasseen to hang after their long incarceration reinforced the view that resuming hanging had nothing to do with deterring violent crime. "While the crime they are supposed to have committed involved murder, it was a family related crime and not kick-down-the-door banditry," the GHRA noted. It noted that the fact that the convicted killers had several trials was trumpeted as evidence that justice was indeed done. But the GHRA said that the fact that Yasseen and Thomas went through three trials did not enhance the quality of justice of a failed first trial. The GHRA appealed to President Jagdeo to rescind his decision to resume hanging. "We further appeal to President Jagdeo to associate himself with the nations of the world seeking civilised solutions to domestic problems thereby setting the moral standard to which he could challenge Guyanese individuals and organisations to aspire," the GHRA statement said.
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