Court overturns 3-year drug trafficking conviction for mother of 6

A mother of six, who had pleaded guilty to trafficking marijuana and was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment, was freed on Friday following a ruling by the Demerara Full Court.

Valensia Carmichael, 39, of Heatburn Village, East Bank Berbice, was imprisoned in 2019 by Magistrate Peter Hugh after admitting to trafficking 848 grams (1.8 pounds) of marijuana.
Police Headquarters had said that the marijuana was found in a barrel at a home where the woman lived along with other persons on April 18, 2019.
According to reports, Carmichael and 10 others were arrested during a stop and search operation in the New Amsterdam Station district between 04:00 and 08:30h on April 18, 2019
Shortly after she was sentenced, Carmichael through her lawyers, Tuanna Hardy and George Thomas, filed an appeal against her conviction and sentence with the Full Court.
Pending the hearing and determination of the appeal, she was admitted to bail.
Arguing that Magistrate Hugh erred in law by failing to consider the “unambiguous and voluntariness” of their client’s guilty plea, the lawyers asked the Full Court to quash her sentence and conviction.
They contended that the mother of six pleaded guilty because her children were being held at the Police Station.
“When the unrepresented [Carmichael] informed the Court that her two children were at the Police Station as a part of the plea in mitigation that the question arises as to whether the plea is a genuine, true, unambiguous, and unequivocal plea or one which arises out of concern for the well-being of the two children who at the material time of the plea were at the Police Station and nothing stopped the Learned Magistrate from so enquiring,” her lawyers submitted.
In the circumstances, they argued that the presiding Magistrate failed to consider the peculiar nature of the case, and passed an excessive sentence together with a fine.
In allowing Carmichael’s appeal, the Demerara Full Court comprising Justices Sandil Kissoon and Brassington Reynolds, set aside her conviction and three-year prison sentence. (G1)