KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, CMC – More than a year after student Alia Mc Dowall was stabbed in the throat, she died on Sunday, with prosecutors in St. Vincent and the Grenadines said to be considering their options.
Mc Dowall, 17, a student of the Central Leeward Secondary School (CLSS) and an athlete, had been battling health challenges resulting from the stab inflicted on her on the road outside her school, allegedly by a student of another school on November, 28, 2024.
Doctors made an emergency intervention last Friday in an attempt to save Mc Dowall’s life after she developed complications following a similar intervention two weeks earlier. A public appeal was made for blood donations for the student.
However, she died Sunday, even as her loved ones had hoped for a miracle. The athlete died on the day that her school was holding its annual athletic meet.
“Today, we express our deepest condolences on the loss of our student-athlete. On a day such as this, you would have been prepared to showcase your talent through running. Rest in peace, young one. Our thoughts are with you and your loved ones,” the CLSS said as it paid tribute to Mc Dowall on social media.
Mc Dowall’s death raises several questions about justice for her family. She died three days after prosecutors instructed investigators to charge her alleged assailant with wounding with intent.
The Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) was reliably informed that the charge was to be laid on Monday, even as investigators have expressed frustration with the time prosecutors have taken to review the file and decide to lay a charge.
The Child Justice Act, passed into law in 2019, limits investigators’ ability to lay charges against minors in the absence of instructions from the National Prosecution Service.
Legal sources told CMC that although the law has not been operationalised, prosecutors have been guided by its intent since it was passed in Parliament.
They said what is sure is that the student cannot be brought up on a charge accusing her of causing Mc Dowall’s death in light of the limitation set by Section 169 of the Criminal Code, which states that “a person shall not be deemed to have killed another person if the death of that other person does not take place within a year and a day of the act or omission alleged to have caused or contributed to the death of that other person.
The Criminal Code also notes that “the period referred to in subsection (1) shall be reckoned inclusive of the day on which the last act or omission causing or contributing to the death occurred.”
One legal expert told CMC that prosecutors could consider charging the alleged perpetrator with grievous bodily harm (GBH), adding that, practically, capital punishment has been outlawed and GBH carries the same penalty as murder: a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
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