Convicted killer jailed for 40 years

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) — A convicted killer who had earlier threatened to have Chief Justice Ivor Archie impeached for taking too long to deliver a judgement in his case, has been sentenced to serve at least 40 years in jail for murdering three people, including a former British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) television broadcaster, in 2001.

The Court of Appeal said there had been no "expression of remorse" as it handed the sentence on Lester Pitman.

The Court found that Pitman, 33, who had been convicted in 2004 along with Daniel Agard, 29, for the murders of British national John Cropper, 59; his mother-in-law Maggie Lee, 83; and sister-in-law Lynette Lithgow-Pearson, 51, the former BBC television broadcaster who was on vacation in Trinidad at the time, was of sound mind when he committed the crime.

In 2008, the Privy Council allowed Pitman's appeal on the basis of new psychiatric evidence which had cast doubt on the legality of the death sentence imposed on both him and Agard.

Agard was again found guilty in September this year and sentenced to hang, while Pitman's matter was remitted to the Court of Appeal to consider the fresh medical evidence. The matter was heard in 2010 judgement reserved.

Chief Justice Archie, who read the ruling of the three-judge panel, said this was a triple murder involving a home invasion in which the victims were "hogtied and butchered and the appellant (Pitman) and his accomplice spent the next few days casually disposing of the goods stolen from the residence.

"There has been no expression of remorse. He is still a relatively young man, we have taken into account the comments of Dr Maharaj (one of the doctors who testified Pitman was not of sound mind) and, while the likelihood of reform was not explored in any detail, we are leaving open the possibility of release before the end of his life but only after serving a minimum term of 40 years in prison."

Earlier this month, Pitman's attorney, Criston Williams, had written a letter to the head of the judiciary, saying that the failure to deliver the judgement has "had the effect of seriously undermining confidence in the administration of justice and the judiciary.

"The action threatens the rule of law and principles that underpin the democratic society that is Trinidad and Tobago," the lawyer said in his letter addressed to the Registrar of the Supreme Court.

He said he had intended to make a formal complaint to Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar calling on her to exercise her powers under Section 137 of the Constitution.

Pitman said his lawyer had advised that the Judicial and Legal Service Commission had no jurisdiction to entertain a complaint against the conduct of the Chief Justice.

"In the circumstances the only avenue of redress open to my client as a result of the actions of the Honourable Chief Justice, in the late delivery of judgements, save commencing constitutional proceedings, is making a complaint to the Honourable Prime Minister calling upon her to exercise her powers under section 137 of the Constitution," attorney Williams wrote on behalf of his client.

But Chief Justice Archie said Wednesday that contrary to the commentary that has been circulating about judicial tardiness in the delivery of judgements, the great majority of judgements of the Court of Appeal were delivered either immediately after the hearing or within "a reasonably short time thereafter".

Justice Archie said the impression may have been garnered in some quarters that the delay of over three years between the hearing of this appeal and the delivery of judgement, which is "by any measure unusual", was the norm.

However, he said the statistics showed that in the Court of Appeal, about six per cent of the civil matters have taken more than a year of delivery of judgement.

"The general trend is that less than ten per cent of decisions are reserved for any significant time. The strategy……Read More