In March of 2004, 16 year old second former Elia Gonzalez was brutally slain in Libertad Village in the Corozal District. She was strangled, after being raped and her hands tied with her own shoelaces. The teenager was walking home on a deserted back road when she was violently attacked, allegedly by a vagrant who was known to be about in the area. Police were led to him after he was caught trying to sell a ring that belonged to Elia Gonzalez.
That man is Kenrick Williams and he went on trial for murder on December seventh in Corozal Town with Justice Herbert Lord presiding. It was a long trial with prosecutor Trennia Young calling over 15 witnesses.
It ended yesterday with the 12 member jury deliberating for four hours. They returned with 11 jurors finding him guilty of murder and one finding him not guilty. That’s called a majority decision, not a unanimous decision; and in murder trials, for a conviction, the verdict needs to be unanimous, a majority decision means a hung jury – or that’s the previously universally accepted rule for juries. But it seems Justice Lord has a different interpretation. He accepted the majority verdict and pronounced Williams guilty of murder.
As we understand it – prosecutor Young challenged the decision in Chambers but Justice Lord reportedly held his ground that under the Juries Act he is allowed to accept a majority decision for murder. According to two private attorneys we spoke to today – a majority decision of 11 to 1 or 10 to 2 can strictly only be accepted for manslaughter and not for murder.
That’s also the public position of the prosecutor’s boss, Director of Public Prosecutions Cheryl-Lynn Vidal. She told us that in her view, the verdict is improper because in any offence that is punishable by death – the jury’s decision must be unanimous – meaning all 12 jurors must agree. Vidal says her office is reviewing the position to see if the irregularity can be rectified before sentencing which is set for January 11, 2010. Lawyers we spoke to told us there’s a possibility that a mistrial could be declared but it’s too early to tell.
What usually happens when a jury is divided – the judge suggests more time to deliberate and if the deadlock is not broken – then the judge suggests the lesser charge of manslaughter for which a majority decision is sufficient for a conviction. DPP Vidal told us that it will be particularly regrettable if the conviction somehow does not stand up because it was a challenging case to prosecute. We’ll keep following it.
