Criminal backlog at Appeal Court reduced by 15 cases

The backlog plaguing the criminal division of the Guyana Court of Appeal has been reduced by 15 cases, according to end of year statistics released by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). During 2020, the Office of the DPP said it appeared in 15 appeals at the Appeal Court.
Of these 15 appeals, six were for the offence of murder, four for manslaughter, two for sexual offences and one each for the offences of attempt to commit murder, falsification of accounts by clerk or servant and robbery with aggravation.
According to the Office of the DPP, there were 10 appeals against conviction and sentence. One of these appeals was withdrawn and one was allowed. The other eight appeals were allowed in part. In two of the eight cases, the appeal against the conviction of murder was allowed and the offence of manslaughter was substituted. The appellants were sentenced accordingly.
In the other six cases, the appeal against conviction was dismissed and the sentences were varied.
There was one application to appeal against life sentence; it was dismissed. Furthermore, there were two applications for bail; one of these was denied, while the other was granted. There were another two applications for extension of time to appeal; one of these was granted while the other one was withdrawn and discontinued.
Meanwhile, during 2020, the Demerara Full Court sat for three matters for the offences of unlawful possession of ammunition, possession of narcotics for the purpose of trafficking and using a computer to humiliate a person. In one case, the application was dismissed as the court was informed that the appellant had died.
In the other case, the court ruled that it did not have jurisdiction to hear the application or to grant bail. This too was dismissed. In the third case, an application was made to leave the jurisdiction and it was granted by the court.
The Berbice Full Court sat for two appeals for the offences of dangerous driving and sexual assault. One appellant withdrew his application, while the other application was dismissed since the appellant and his legal counsel were absent.
Over at the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), DPP Shalimar Ali-Hack, SC, appeared in person in the case of Linton Pompey v the State. This was an appeal against conviction and sentence for three sexual offences, including two counts of rape of a child under 16. The appeal against conviction was dismissed and the appeal against sentence was granted; the sentence was varied.