On March 10th of this year business owner Edward Reyes was found guilty of killing his employee Norman "Butta" Ferguson. He was sentenced to 7 years in jail for manslaughter by Chief Justice Abdullah Conteh.
Reyes's Attorney Sandra Garoy launched an immediate appeal, and today she appeared in court across from Director of Public Prosecutions Kirk Anderson. Anderson did not object to the appeal and in fact supported submissions by Garoy that the case was wrought with errors.
Prominent among them was the trial judge's failure to direct the jury on aspersions made by the prosecutor against Reyes. There was also no definition for an accident, in this case the firing of the gun. With that the case and the sentence were quashed and a re-trial was ordered despite objections by Garoy who said that there should be no retrial; that the DPP's office should not have a second chance when it botched the first one.
Reyes was then offered bail in the sum of $6,000 plus one surety, the same amount for which he had previously been bailed. This was given despite objections by the DPP who asked for double that amount. He argued that the prosecution's case is now stronger for a conviction. With the bail, Reyes left court free and is out of jail, pending the second trial.
