Closure in sight
Mario Deane’s mom looking forward to moving on with her life; trial gets fully under way today
SAVANNA-LA-MAR, Westmoreland — Delayed for more than a decade, the trial of three cops in the Mario Deane murder case is scheduled to open today, giving his mother, Mercia Fraser, reason to hope that finally, closure is near.
“It feels good. It feels good like we’re going somewhere and we’re going to move on. I’m really looking forward to it. I’m looking forward to the closure so that I can go on with my life… It’s a good start,” Fraser told the Jamaica Observer outside the courthouse in Westmoreland on Monday.
Unlike in St James, where the case had stalled mainly because a jury could not be empanelled, all 56 individuals summoned as jurors in the Hilary session of the Westmoreland Circuit Court agreed to serve, and this morning seven of them will begin hearing evidence in the case.
Fraser admitted that the long wait for a trial, which was transferred from St James to Westmoreland last November, had left her hesitant and nervous.
“Honestly… I don’t know what’s going on. I’m wondering if it’s going to be like Montego Bay. But today I am here and I feel a little more relief after 10 and a half years, a little more relief that somewhere I saw more jurors than we really need,” Fraser said.
“[It] was very, very painful each time at court… It’s like you have a sore foot, and it’s like you hurt it up. That’s how it feels, just stirring up more and more and more; bringing you back to the day. It was very painful, but I’m looking forward to putting that behind,” she told the Observer.
Deane was 31 years old when he died in the Barnett Street police lock-up in Montego Bay. He had been arrested for possession of a ganja spliff and placed in custody, where he was brutally beaten on August 3, 2014.
He received severe injuries to his brain, which left him in a coma. He died three days later at Cornwall Regional Hospital in St James.
The three cops on trial — Corporal Elaine Stewart, and constables Juliana Clevon and Marlon Grant — are all charged with manslaughter, perverting the course of justice, and misconduct in a public office.
It is alleged that they were on duty at the police station at the time when Deane was beaten. It is further alleged that Corporal Stewart instructed that the cell in which the attack took place be cleaned before the arrival of investigators from the Independent Commission of Investigations.
On Monday, Supreme Court judge Justice Courtney Daye expressed pleasure at the turnout by the jurors summoned in Westmoreland.
“A credit to the jury system, as all served answered the summons. I am happy that I did not have to fine anyone,” he said from the bench.
Jamaicans For Justice’s (JFJ) Policy Research Advocacy Manager Jade Williams also breathed a sigh of relief that jurors have finally been empanelled.
“There seems to have been a concerted effort at the serving of summonses to the jurors, and the jurors were extremely responsive to the summonses,” she told reporters.
Before he ordered the case transferred to Westmoreland, Supreme Court Judge Justice Bertram Morrison had expressed the view that the matter should never be tried in St James. He pointed to numerous delays, some of which were caused by the police’s failure to serve potential jurors with summonses.
On Monday, JFJ’s Williams said there are still questions to be answered about what happened in St James.
“It is good to see that we were able to finally get that service done and have the jurors available, but I think there must be some examination of what would have prevented similar circumstances in the other forum in the St James Circuit,” she stated.
Challenges in finding enough jurors to empanel have been a common thread across Jamaica for years and, according to Williams, JFJ believes the process needs to be streamlined.
“I know that the registrar at the Supreme Court is the one that sends down the list, but there seem to be some gaps in the serving of the summonses versus the responses of the persons — the period of time in which the summonses are served, as well as enforcement. When they don’t respond to the summonses, how are we ensuring that those procedures that are in the Jury Act are being used to enforce those orders?” she queried.
“So, [that] is something that we need to be looking at more fulsomely as we consider issues that may affect the speediness of trials,” Williams argued.
She was emphatic in her assessment that it was the correct decision to move the case out of the parish in which the alleged crime was committed.
“It’s been a long road to get here… We’re gratified to see that, and we’re looking forward to the evidence beginning to be led,” said Williams.
“We will continue to have our representatives here to support Mercia as the matter continues and to explain anything to her that she may not understand, so that we can all be on one page as the matter goes forward and be able to get to that closure point that we’ve all been waiting on for the past 10 to 11 years,” she added.
Jamaicans for Justice policy research advocacy manager, Jade Williams (left) in discussion with Mario Deane’s mother, Mercia Fraser on day one of the trial in the Westmoreland Circuit Court on Monday. (Photo: Anthony Lewis)
