ANTIGUA: TWO MURDER CONVICTS RELEASED

November 22, 2016: Michael Lorriston Cornwall and Michael Mason walked out of Her Majesty’s Prison (HMP), free men, after a resentencing exercise in the High Court.
Justice Darshan Ramdhani sentenced former death row convict, Cornwall, to 30 years in jail and released him immediately. He also sentenced Mason to 30 years and ruled that prison authorities should calculate the time served thus far and determine his release date.
Since he, too, has been behind bars for 30 jail years – eight months is equivalent to a year in prison – it was also determined he should be released because the court ordered that time spent on remand and detention after the conviction must be deducted from his sentence.
Cornwall has been incarcerated since 1994 for killing his ex-partner following their separation and dispute over her alleged unfaithfulness and for rejecting his proposal of marriage.
He was later found guilty and sentenced to death — the mandatory sentence for a murder conviction at the time.
However, very close to the time of the execution, the death warrant was put on hold. Then, in 2002, the Privy Council, in a landmark decision, stated that the mandatory death sentence was unconstitutional and that each case must be examined individually. Further, by that time, Cornwall had already spent more than five years awaiting execution. That, too, was considered to be cruel and inhumane under another Privy Council ruling.
As a result, resentencing became necessary in all jurisdictions under the Privy Council, though it took nearly two decades for Antigua & Barbuda to address the constitutional breaches. According to the judge, this was an inexcusable delay. Up to the time of a recent prison report, the men had been referred to as inmates on death row.
The court said the constitutional breaches of the convicts’ rights had to be considered when they were resentenced. The judge also noted the men were first time offenders and that Cornwall showed genuine remorse for his actions and was described by prison authorities as “safe for release.”
Superintendent Albert Wade, who has been in charge of HMP for almost two years, said Cornwall has been rehabilitated, has been very helpful to prison staff and other prisoners, especially disabled ones, and “is always smiling”.
Each man was also evaluated by a psychiatrist to determine his mental state as part of the resentencing exercise.
The other convict, Mason, has been behind bars since 1996 after being found guilty for the 1995 murder of Canadian tourist Wendy Newbiggin, who, he said, was accidentally shot while he was trying to rob her of her handbag. (Sources: antiguaobserver.com, 23/11/2016)