Donald Rodney begins vigil for hearing of appeal against explosives conviction
Quantity surveyor Donald Rodney yesterday commenced a vigil in front of the Guyana Court of Appeal in protest at what he says is an inordinate delay by the court in hearing an appeal against a 1982 conviction for possession of explosives.
He is also advocating for an investigation into a 2010 appeal filed in his name, but which he says did not commence. That appeal was eventually dismissed.
Donald Rodney is the brother of Guyanese intellectual, writer, and political activist, Walter Rodney, who is said to have been assassinated on June 13th 1980 with the complicity of the then PNC government.
When Stabroek News arrived at the location around 10:00am yesterday, Rodney who was was joined by Working People’s Alliance (WPA) member Tacuma Ogunseye, and political scientist and commentator, Freddie Kissoon, had commenced the vigil. Rodney was still protesting, silently, with his sign high, when Stabroek News revisited the location around 2:15pm. Rodney said that he intended to leave around between 2:30pm to 3:00pm.
Rodney is attempting to have his 1983 conviction in the magistrates’ court overturned. In 2010, that conviction was appealed, but the appeal was eventually dismissed. Rodney, however, says that he never instructed an attorney to file an appeal. He also said that the attorney who is on record as representing him in that matter also told him that he did not file the appeal nor was he aware of the matter.
In fact, Rodney said that he was abroad when the appeal was filed in 2010, and was alerted to it by a notification sent to his overseas address.
Stabroek News was able to access the fly sheet regarding the 2010 appeal. The document lists Rodney as the applicant, and retired Justice Jainarayan Singh Jr as his attorney-at-law. Stabroek News attempted to contact Justice Singh yesterday but was unable to establish contact.
The fly sheet also lists former acting Chief Justice, Ian Chang, and former Justice Winston Patterson as the judges who heard the appeal. Former Chief Justice Chang is now deceased, while Justice Patterson now serves as Ombudsman.
Stabroek News visited Justice Patterson’s office
yesterday, but was unable to speak with him as he is abroad on business.
The fly sheet further reveals that the appeal was fixed for callover before the Justices on July 28th, 2010 at 10:00am, and that there was “no appearance of or for the appellant”, on that date. Consequently, the matter was adjourned until August 6th, 2010.
However, on that date as well, there was “no appearance of or for the appellant”. On this occasion, the appeal was “dismissed for non-appearance of appellant and/or counsel”, and no order as to costs was made.
“This is serious since in addition to that unlawfulness, neither I nor a representing attorney-at-law were notified beforehand or present at the hearing. Yet two senior judges, in the presence of the prosecution, staged effectively, a secret hearing and dismissal of my appeal,” Rodney said.
“Thus, no explanation has ever been offered by the court or the office of the DPP for this unlawful episode. This exposes a grave flaw in the judicial system of Guyana. It is against this background that I am mounting the vigil”, Rodney said.
Rodney explained that the current appeal was filed in February, and he expressed disappointment that a date for hearing is yet to be set. Rodney said that on October 14th, 2019, he engaged a senior registry official in the Court of Appeal, who informed him that the court is not satisfied with the documents on hand at the moment. The staffer, he said, promised to contact him the same day, or the day after, but never did so.
Rodney says he is uncertain why the collection of the relevant documents from the Full Court and the Magistrates Court would be difficult to obtain, especially given that he has been able to source the fly sheet from the High Court, the written decision of the magistrate who presided over his matter, and a certified copy of the transcript of the proceedings in the magistrates’ court.
He did, however, express suspicion that the transcript does not contain, in all cases, an accurate reflection of what took place.
Rodney says that initially, he will hold vigils once every week.