X6 suspect's attorney gives thumbs up to cops
Published:Tuesday | July 12, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Daraine Luton, Senior Staff Reporter
DEFENCE ATTORNEY Patrick Atkinson has called for the police to use the manner in which they have been releasing information about the killing of Kingston College student Khajeel Mais as a template for how they should handle similar cases in the future.
Atkinson, speaking with The Gleaner shortly before revealing that he had been retained as attorney for the key suspect in the killing, commended the police for the selective manner in which they released information. His comments come despite public consternation at a perceived double standard in not naming the man, believed to be the driver of the BMW X6, involved in the shooting incident two Fridays ago.
"I think the police have handled it correctly. If there are cases where they haven't done as they did in this one, then they are to use this as a model as to how to operate in a case such as this," Atkinson told The Gleaner.
Human-rights lobby baffled
At the same time, human-rights lobby Jamaicans for Justice, which has in the past raised concerns about the Jamaica Constabulary Force's (JCF's) strategy of listing individuals as persons of interest, yesterday said it was "struggling to understand the clear double standard being exhibited by the JCF" in this case.
The suspect in the Mais case was never named as a person of interest, even though the police released information indicating they were aware of the identity of their target.
Marlon Gilbert Roberts, whose client, Carlton 'Spragga Benz' Grant, was named as a person of interest after a double killing in McIntyre Villa, Kingston, which occurred while he was overseas, was also troubled by the difference in the way the police have handled the most recent case.
"I find it a bit surprising because there is a practice that has developed among the security forces since May 2010, where police name people as persons of interest with little more information than their names being called in a particular incident," he told The Gleaner.