The Tribune

By PAVEL BAILEY

Tribune Staff Reporter

pbailey@tribunemedia.net

A SUPREME Court judge called a constitutional motion to overturn the homicide by manslaughter finding against officers who killed Azario Major “premature” yesterday.

The four officers involved in Major’s death want the Coroners Court’s ruling overturned, arguing pre-trial publicity prevented a fair inquest.

The attorney general and the “Coroner of the Coroner’s Court” are the first and second respondents in the case. The judge denied an application from Azario Major’s family to be a party to the proceedings.

After hearing submissions from Keevon Maynard, the lawyer for the officers, Justice Franklyn Williams questioned whether addressing the issues only arises if or when the officers are charged with a crime.

 “Isn’t this premature?” he asked. “The question of a finding against one or all of them, which is then fleshed out by a charge, isn’t that the point where you would raise these issues?”

“Isn’t a finding of homicide by manslaughter just that? Until it results in a charge, isn’t it just a finding? Isn’t it the case that the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions may decide that there is no charge to be made?

 “And isn’t that a likely outcome, and when I say likely, a possible outcome that they may not be charged? And doesn’t that possible outcome leave the finding as just that? That’s a finding of a coroner’s jury. That’s not the finding or the determination of the person who is lawfully clothed with the power to charge. Isn’t your application premature?”

 When Mr Maynard argued that the inquest’s findings insinuated that the officers are guilty, Justice Williams countered that no criminal guilt had been placed on them yet.

 The deliberation of Acting Director of Public Prosecutions Cordell Fraizer on whether to charge the officers with a crime has been delayed by the ongoing effort to overturn the Coroner’s Court’s ruling.