Last night, we showed you our one-on-one interview with DPP Cheryl-Lynn Vidal. She was sort of taking a victory lap after the successful prosecution which resulted in the conviction of William Danny Mason, and his 4 employees for the 2016 murder of Pastor Lewellyn Lucas.
We also asked about other less successful prosecutions which have ended with accused murderers getting off by evading justice almost entirely.
We asked about those cases where main witnesses go rogue, or when her office is forced to withdraw charges against accused murderers in the very early stages of prosecution.
Here's what she said about it:
Cheryl-Lynn Vidal, SC - Director of Public Prosecutions
"I know it was a case that was being looked at by the nation. I think that a lot of where we are mentally, in relation to the criminal justice system seemed to rest on this case, and I know that there have been comments that well, we only put effort into this case because this case had implications for other persons, and it's so absolutely not true. Tremendous effort goes into every single case that we prosecute. Nothing tells about your character more than when you go to court, and you stand there, and you conduct a case."
"If you go there unprepared, if you go there and you don't know what to do, you don't know how to answer questions, it tells about your person. And no prosecutor is going to want to stand in court, and be judged, and found wanting. A lot of effort goes into it."
"All of the attorneys here are trained. Some of them have been here for years, and they put in their best. The difficulty is that we're not getting the cooperation of the witnesses. Some persons have no difficulty in giving a statement to the police. Once they've signed that statement, they don't want to hear about going to court and facing the person who they've spoken about, and pointing that person out. They prefer not to assist us and have that person walk free, and you can't blame the prosecutor in those circumstances. The media reports it accurately, that this person recanted, that his statement wasn't admitted into evidence. We had to close the case, or we had to discontinue the case. But still the prosecutors are blamed, for what is happening, and that is desperately unfair."
She also told us that the Mason trial was an interesting study of how the general public is still grappling with the true cost to pursue justice against defendants who are accused of gruesome crimes. Here's how she explained why:
Cheryl-Lynn Vidal, SC - Director of Public Prosecutions
"There were witnesses in this case who told us up front, it's not happening. I'm not going. There were witnesses who came and said, 'I'm scared. I'm really scared, but I want to see justice.' And these are not people who were close to Pastor Lue, or who were friends with Pastor Lue. But, they felt the importance of this case to everyone. So, we tried to take steps to ensure that they felt safe when they testified. But, by and large, we had the cooperation of the majority persons who we needed in the case."
"We had a lot of different categories of evidence in the case. We had the video recordings. We had the electronic evidence with the text messages. We had the DNA evidence, other forensic evidence, and a lot of that evidence depended on law enforcement or agencies of law enforcement. And so, it was easier to have access to that evidence. It didn't depend on civilians who may have been desperately afraid to go to court, or who, when they went to court, may have performed in a certain way, because of that fright."
The DPP is getting ready to prosecute the kidnapping charge against Mason and 4 of his employees, 3 of whom have already been convicted of Pastor Lue's murder. When that case begins, we'll be there to tell you how it goes.
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