In Mid May we took you to the Belmopan Supreme Court to meet Danny Mason's new Guyanese lawyer Dextor Todd. That court session was mostly for Todd to get up to speed with the particulars of Mason's case. The court also appointed 4 other attorney's to represent the other accused men. As we told you in March, Todd and the other lawyers had to come on board after Herbert Panton walked off the murder trial and asked to be relieved of the defense of the 5 accused. Now, in that May session, it was decided that the trial will resume today, but that was not the case. The court could not proceed because Mason's new attorney Todd did not show up. So it was just a long day of waiting and delays until Justice Antoinette Moore had no other option but to adjourn the case. Attorney Bryan Neal spoke to us after the session about the impact this extended delay can have on the defendants.
Bryan Neal, Kieron Fernandez Attorney
"Well basically we have 5 accused persons and it is very hard to coordinate 5 lawyers schedules. We have been having difficulty getting this case re-started, Mr. Panton was the previous attorney along with Ms. Montejo and 5 new attorney's were appointed and it has been difficult to get especially Mr. Todd now, Mr. Mason's attorney, is not in country but should be here tonight according to Mr. Mason and we should proceed on Monday the trial starts."
Courtney Weatherburne:
"I am not sure what happened because it was to start at 9:00 this morning but then they pushed it to 1:00 just tell us about that."
Bryan Neal
"It is the same issue again with attorney's schedule, the court has been very gracious in trying to accommodate us but it is reaching the stage we want to conclude this matter because this large gulf of time between when it was postponed and when they are trying to start it again could have some issues in terms of fair trial for the defendants and we don't want that so we are trying to get it started on Monday, hopefully it does."
Courtney Weatherburne:
"Was there any other issues in terms of preparation, paperwork?"
Bryan Neal
"One of the accused, I can't recall the name, represented by Ms. Shoman is saying that a confession statement he gave to the police was not voluntarily given so what will happen is that they will have to do a voir dire and they will have to determine on the voir dire whether the caution statement was voluntarily given with accordance with section 90, I believe of the evidence act."
Justine Moore made it clear that there will be no excuses come Monday June 24th and that the trial must resume. All attorney's must be present. We will be there to see how that session goes.
Email
Print