BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – AN appeal forwarded to the Privy Council on behalf of Evanson ‘Blee’ Mitchum against conviction has been dismissed. However, his appeal against the death penalty imposed on him in a lower court is yet to be heard.

Mitchum and his accomplices, Vincent Fahie and Patrice Matthew, were on June 10, 2002 convicted of the February 3, 2001 murder of Vernal Nisbett and were sentenced some two weeks later. Mitchum was sentenced to death as prescribed by law while Fahie and Matthew were sentenced to life imprisonment.

The High Court’s decision (on conviction) was appealed and the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal ruled that the decision be upheld, but ordered that the three men return to the High Court of Justice, Basseterre for re-sentencing. Their sentence during that sitting mirrored the previous.

According to a document entitled “Privy Council Appeal No 44 of 2007…Reasons for Decision of the Lords of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council”, on July 7, 2004, Mitchum informed that he would be appealing to the Privy Council, and while “his London solicitors informed the London agents of the Attorney General of Saint Christopher and Nevis that they were instructed to present a petition for leave to appeal,” quite sometime had elapsed before any further steps were taken.

The document explains that on June 15, 2007, Mitchum was informed that the death penalty would have been carried out on him four days from then and that resulted in “an immediate petition” being forwarded to the Privy Council on his behalf. That body granted Mitchum leave to appeal and ordered that his execution be stayed until the appeal for leave was heard. 

On December 11, 2008, the appeal against the Court of Appeal’s decision to affirm his conviction was heard by the Privy Council and it was dismissed on the grounds that any risk of prejudice during the trial and seemingly controversial comments made by the then Director of Public Prosecutions were not enough to effect an unfair disadvantage of Mitchum.

“Their Lordships do not consider that the risk of prejudice was more than minimal. The reference to threats by the Director of Public Prosecutions was fleeting and oblique, very far from being a specific reference to any action of the appellant. The jury were [sic] sent out for a short time, then there was no more reference to the matter during the rest of the trial, which continued until 10 June 2002, some 19 days later. In their Lordships’ view it was best that the matter be left in that way, rather than that the judge should highlight it by giving the jury directions about disregarding it. No request was made to him to discharge the jury, and if one had been made he would have been justified in refusing it. Nor was any point taken about the incident when the case went to the Court of Appeal. Their Lordships are satisfied that the trial was fair and the appellant’s conviction safe.”

As stated in the document, however, the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal granted leave to Mitchum to appeal “out of time” against the death sentence which was affirmed at the High Court on June 2, 2004. That appeal, is still pending.

Background
 
On February 3, 2001, at an approximate 12:30 a.m., Vernal Nisbett was shot after going to the assistance of Arlene Fleming who was approached by three men while at her barbeque stand at Westbourne Ghaut. One of the men was armed with a gun and fired the shot which ended Nisbett’s life.