For almost 14 years, convicted murderer Glenford Baptist has been the only Belizean prisoner still on death row. That ended today when his death sentence was quashed by Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin.
He was convicted along with co-defendants Gilroy Wade Jr., Oscar Mendez in November 2001 in a Supreme Court Trial before the then Justice Wilfred "Sedi" Elrington. The jury found them guilty of acting in joint enterprise to kill Azrin White on the night of July 24 in the year 2000.
Coincidentally, to get the death sentence quashed, he sued Wilfred Elrington who is now the Attorney General of Belize. He contested that it is unjust to have him languishing on death row for 13 years and 8 months. His attorney, Priscilla Banner, argued the case before the Chief Justice, and she successfully convinced him to set it aside. She explained it to us this afternoon:
Priscilla Banner - Attorney for Glenford Baptist
"There are two basis on which Mr. Baptist challenged his detention as the last remaining death row prisoner. The first is that he asserted that the period in which he has been held on death row which is some 13 years and 8 months, the period goes far beyond what Pratt and Morgan describes as, I believe Pratt and Morgan is 5 years. Essentially, once a person is held on death row without being executed for more than 5 years, the courts have found that that is a breach of a person's right not to be subjected to inhumane treatment or punishment. So, that was the first basis. It went beyond that 5 year period. He is there for 13 years and 8 months."
"The second basis is the Reyes basis, the sentencing court - it should not be that there is an automatic sentence of death and if you recall, that automatic sentencing regime of death in the case of murder by firearm, was declared to be unconstitutional."
"Essentially Mr. Baptist was saying to the court 'I've been held for death row for 13 years and 8 months and I was sentence automatically to death. Both of those constitutes breaches of my fundamental rights, particularly section 7 of the Constitution' and he ask the court pursuant to the courts' jurisdiction under section 20 of the Constitution, to quash his sentence of death."
"Today, his lordship heard the parties in respect of this matter and determine that in view of the concession by the government and acknowledged well-established case law that the sentence of death for Mr. Baptist should be quashed and that a resentencing hearing should be set. That hearing is scheduled for October."
As you heard in the interview, the Court will hand him a new sentence, and we'll tell you what that is when it is delivered. The prosecution's evidence in the 2001 trial was that Baptist was the holder of the gun when he and the other men went on Iguana Street on the night of Azrin White's murder. He handed the weapon over, and his partner shot White at point blank range. He fell dead in the drain, and that's when all 3 men rode off.
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