ATTORNEY Bert Samuels, who represented the family of 16-year-old Vanessa Kirkland who was killed in a 2012 police shooting, says the $1.4 million awarded in a civil suit filed in 2017 was a mockery of the value of the slain child’s life. According to Samuels, it is time legislators do something about what he has termed “a paradox”.

Speaking to the Jamaica Observer in the wake of Monday’s ruling of the Appeal Court acquitting constables Andrewain Smith, Durvin Hayles, and Ana-Kaye Bailey — who were in 2019 convicted of manslaughter in relation to the shooting death of Kirkland and sentenced to 14 years and six months in prison each — Samuels said a settlement had been received in 2019 for Kirkland’s death.

Samuels, who said the attorney general had accepted liability, making it so that the matter was settled without a trial, emphasised that the settlement received would have been the same had the matter gone to trial and insisted that “there was no compromise on the quantum”.

He said the settlement amount encompassed awards for funeral expenses and loss of expectation of life.

Kirkland, a former student of Immaculate Conception High School, was killed when the cops, who were members of a police team, opened fire on a car in which she was a passenger.

According to the police, the incident began in Portmore, St Catherine, where the robbery of a cellphone occurred during which the victim [of the robbery] was allegedly assaulted.

The perpetrators were supposedly aboard the ill-fated blue Suzuki Swift motor car in which Kirkland was a passenger. The incident was broadcast over the police radio network and shortly after the car was reportedly spotted and followed by the police. A gunfight reportedly started when the car got to Norman Lane in Greenwich Town, near where Kirkland lived.

“The law needs reform for the loss of life in general because if Vanessa Kirkland had gotten a fracture to her leg she would have gotten more than her estate has been paid for the loss of her life. A fracture of her leg, which would result in, say, a one-inch shortening, she is likely to get possibly $4 million to $5 million. But if you die, you get much less than if you are seriously injured, and that paradox, to me, shows that we discount the value of life,” Samuels argued.

He said because Kirkland was a student at the time of her death and not employed, lawyers were unable to get any award for loss of income support for her mother, Veronica Nelson.

“In other words, were she a working person we would have looked at her income and say she would be paying 10, 30 per cent to her mother. We got nothing for that because she was a student. Loss of expectation of life is usually not even a million dollars, that’s why I am saying the law needs to be reformed where Parliament should intervene and set a minimum for the expectation of life,” Samuels told the Observer.

The attorney, who said he was “upset” about the current state of affairs, argued further that “the Parliament seems to be focused on extreme punishment for people who take life on the basis that life is precious, but when you look at the civil side for the compensation for the loss of life to parents, there is no statutory intervention to give a decent award for the loss of life”.

“My view is that the starting point should be $10 million for the loss of life of any Jamaican citizen,” he stated.

Pointing to the cases of slain Negril businessman Frederick “Mickey” Hill, whose estate was awarded $17 million in 2015 by the courts following a wrongful death suit, and Kingston College student Khajeel Mais, whose estate was awarded $2 million in 2017 after a suit brought by his parents against the man held responsible for his death, as a “good comparison”, Samuels said, “Again, it’s a student. Should that matter if you are a student and you are cut down in the prime of your young life?”

“Our parliamentarians should balance the whole legislative intervention and revisit the civil side to show respect for human life. You cannot have a situation where a fracture attracts more money than the loss of a life,” he stated.

Samuels, in further disparaging the paltry sum dispensed, said the irony was that even loss of liberty suits carried higher payouts.

“If Vanessa Kirkland was arrested by the police, charged, and then acquitted, she would get more compensation than if she were killed. Remember, the police are sworn to protect and serve and they opened fire on a vehicle that had a young person in it. It demonstrates that you can be criminally not liable, but civilly liable,” he noted.

He, in the meantime, said the ex-gratia payment being called for on behalf of Kirkland was voided by the previous action.

“The mother signed a release which committed her to take no further action whatsoever. Firstly, we went to the court and had the mother appointed as administrator of her estate. She was a student, she didn’t have a will, so for us to sue on her behalf we had to apply for letters of administration to be issued in the name of her daughter,” he explained.

Kirkland’s mother on Monday, in a sorrowful response, said no amount of money could compensate for the life of her child, who was one of nine, had exhibited tremendous promise for the future, and whose untimely passing had left a void that would never be filled.

“She looked on me and said, ‘Mommy, a nuff a wi you have and mi a come help you.’ A from she small mi a tell her seh mi a teach you before you start school and is two schools mi want you to go — Immaculate or Ardenne. And when she pass her exams for Immaculate she said, ‘Mommy, your dream came true.’ I don’t really make the money bother me because I know it can’t carry back my daughter,” Nelson told the Observer poignantly.