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Published: Wednesday | August 5, 2009
A 38-YEAR OLD man who last enjoyed freedom at age 15 has been set free by the Supreme Court.
Garfield Peart, who was arrested as a juvenile in 1987 for murder, was released on parole Friday for a period of three years from July 31, 2009 to July 31, 2012.
Justice Marva McDonald-Bishop ordered Peart released last week following a submission by counsel Jacqueline Samuels-Brown and Tameka Jordon.
The submission was a review of inmates held at the court's pleasure. Peart was arrested at age 15 and charged with murder and sentenced to be held at the governor general's pleasure when he was 17.
However, a 2003 United Kingdom Privy Council ruling stated that it was unconstitutional to detain juveniles at the governor general's pleasure and that they should be detained at the court's pleasure instead.
The Privy Council stated: "A person detained during the governor general's pleasure is deprived of his personal liberty not in execution of the sentence or order of a court but at the discretion of the executive.
"Such a person is not afforded a fair hearing by an independent and impartial court because the sentencing of a criminal defendant is part of the hearing and, in cases such as the present, sentence is effectively passed by the executive and not by a court independent of the executive."
Application for review
The Privy Council ruling dictated that an application be made for review of the sentence of an offender detained at the court's pleasure and the procedure to be followed by the judge conducting the review.
The application for review must take place five years after the applicant is first detained at the court's pleasure.
The reports submitted to the court painted Peart as a model prisoner and fit to be reintegrated in society, which prompted the judge's decision to grant him immediate release.
Court documents stated that Peart was convicted of killing Major John St Dennis. According to the documents, three men fired a number of shots at the house Dennis shared with his wife, one of which caught him in his groin. Peart was subsequently picked out, on an identification parade by the deceased's wife, as being one of the three men who eventually entered the house and robbed her of a number of articles, including her wedding ring. She said she had handed the ring to Peart. She also testified that the men were in the house for about two hours and during that time, she was being marched all over the house.
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