TWENTY-FIVE-YEAR-OLD August Town fisherman Junior 'Simple' Campbell has been sentenced to death for the murder of a couple within his volatile St Andrew community three years ago.

However, it is unlikely that he will be executed due to the current moratorium on hanging. His sentence will likely be commuted to life imprisonment in the next five years in keeping with the 1993 Privy Council ruling in the Pratt and Morgan case, which bars convicts from being executed after spending five years on death row.

In handing down the sentence in the Home Circuit Court yesterday, Justice Donald McIntosh bemoaned the fact that death sentences passed by the court for the past two decades have not been carried out.

McIntosh also used the opportunity to implore the government to put in place facilities to take care of children who are left without parents as a result of violence.

Campbell was found guilty on May 5 for the murders of Marlene Brown and her common-law husband Stanford 'Trevor' Hall. The two died leaving five children, whose caregivers are now struggling to meet their needs, the court was told.

Brown and Hall were at home on February 2005 when Campbell and other men kicked in their door and opened fire on Hall, who grabbed his months-old baby and ran. Brown was also shot several times and died that same morning.

Hall died from complications caused by his injuries 11 days after the attack, but not before giving a statement to the police and identified Campbell during an identification parade as one of the attackers. Hall's statement was heavily relied on at the trial.

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