Wait for court ruling on immunity claim delays Keith Clarke murder trial

The wait for a ruling by the Court of Appeal has again caused a delay in the stalled murder trial of three Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) soldiers accused of the 2010 shooting death of businessman Keith Clarke.

The next scheduled date for the case to be mentioned in court is on January 17, 2023.

The date was set after the three soldiers, Corporal Odel Buckley, Lance Corporal Greg Tinglin and Private Arnold Henry made a brief appearance in the Home Circuit Court in Kingston on Tuesday.

Clarke's wife, Claudette, who was in the courtroom, was not happy with the latest setback, the family's attorney Leonard Green disclosed.

"She is disappointed, but resolute," Green told The Gleaner.

Jury selection for the soldiers' murder trial was about to start in April 2018 when lawyers for the army surprised prosecutors with certificates of immunity which they claimed shielded the three men from prosecution for their actions on the night Clarke was killed.

The businessman was shot 21 times inside his Kirkland Heights home in St Andrew on July 27, 2010, during a military operation.

The soldiers had reportedly gone in search of Christopher 'Dudus' Coke, the now convicted Jamaican drug lord who is serving time in a US prison. 

Coke was the target of an islandwide manhunt after escaping a security dragnet inside his west Kingston enclave of Tivoli Gardens.

The certificates of immunity were signed in 2016 by then Minister of National Security Peter Bunting, six years after Clarke's death.

"I hereby certify that the actions of Corporal Odel Buckley on May 27, 2010, between the hours of 12 a.m. and 12 p.m. at 18 Kirkland Close, Red Hills, St Andrew, which may have contributed to, or caused, the death of Keith Clarke, were done in good faith in the exercise of his functions as a member of the security forces for public safety, the restoration of order, the preservation of peace and in the public interest," late army attorney Paul Beswick said in court at the time, quoting from one of the certificates.

But in February 2020, the Constitutional Court ruled that the immunity certificates were invalid, null and void and that the soldiers should stand trial. 

The ruling was made after Clarke's widow challenged the validity of the certificates.

However, the soldiers, through their attorneys, have asked the Court of Appeal, Jamaica's second-highest court, to quash the decision of the Constitutional Court.

The Court of Appeal reserved its decision on February 12 last year after hearing legal arguments from attorneys for the soldiers and Clarke's widow as well as prosecutors.

- Livern Barrett

Follow The Gleaner on Twitter and Inst gram @JamaicaGleaner and on Facebook @GleanerJamaica. Send us a message on WhatsApp at 1-876-499-0169 or email us at onlinefeedback@gleanerjm.com or editors@gleanerjm.com.