BRIDGETOWN, Barbados– A High Court judge ordered the state to pay a former murder accused BDS$75,000 (One BDS$=US$0.50 cents) after being unlawfully detained for 18 days following his acquittal.
Justice Shona Griffith said the constitutional rights of Pedro Deroy Ellis had been breached when he was remanded to prison after being found not guilty of murder.
She awarded him BDS$50 000 in non-pecuniary damages and $25 000 in vindicatory damages, adding, “this is a case in which an award of damages is necessary and appropriate.
“This is a claim for deprivation of liberty,” the judge said.
In 2019, Ellis went on trial on May 5, 2013, for stabbing the death of Antonio Harewood. At the end of that trial, the 12-member jury found him not guilty of murder but could not reach a verdict on manslaughter.
At the end of the proceedings, Justice Carlisle Greaves, who had presided over the matter, remanded Ellis to HMP Dodds while a decision was made on whether there would be a retrial.
However, his defense team of Larry Smith Q.C. and attorney-at-law Jamila Smith objected to their client being placed on remand and took the matter before the Court of Appeal, which sided with them that there was no legal ground to keep Ellis.
The Court of Appeal ordered his release in November 2019, noting that Ellis was arraigned on a single-count indictment for murder. The Appeal Court said jurors returned a unanimous not guilty verdict for murder, but there was no agreement on an alternative verdict for manslaughter and, as such, were released from their duty.
“The prudent course open to the judge was to order the appellant’s release. After that, it was a matter for the DPP to decide whether further action was required.
“We are not convinced that the appellant’s continued detention could be justified in the circumstances . . . . For the preceding reasons, we allowed the appeal and ordered the immediate release of the appellant,” the Court of Appeal panel said in March 2020.
In handing down her decision on the issue of damages on Monday, Madam Justice Griffith affirmed that there was a breach of Ellis’ constitutional rights.
“According to the Court of Appeal decision, there was absolutely no reason and no basis for the claimant to have been returned to jail, and that the Court considers being a significant circumstance about its impact on the claimant,” she said, noting that Ellis essentially had his freedom in his hands, but that was taken from him.
“And that is an element in this case and . . . the nature of the breach that has to be acknowledged. . . . It’s about what the infringement would have done to the claimant and redressing that. Eighteen days is not the numerical issue; it was the circumstances . . . of incarceration [with] criminal proceedings coming to an end and there is no lawful basis for detention,” Justice Griffith added.
In awarding the damages, the judge said, “it is not so much the amount, compared to what was being asked.
“The Court says, ‘I find that is the appropriate award to be awarded damages.’ I also find the cost in the circumstances where, in effect, your freedom was yanked from you at that stage to be worthy of an additional award,” she said, ruling that costs be assessed within three months of Monday’s date for payment to Ellis’ attorneys.
The lawyers for Ellis had sought almost BDS$900 000 in damages.
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