Donald Rodney argues Magistrate failed to admit defence

Appeal against 1982 conviction

In an appeal against his 1982 conviction and 18-month prison sentence for the unlawful possession of explosives, Donald Rodney, the brother of late politician and historian Dr Walter Rodney, has, among other things, pointed to the trial Magistrate’s failure to admit his defence. Following the conviction, Donald Rodney filed an appeal. He was granted bail pending appeal.
In a Notice of Appeal filed with the Guyana Court of Appeal, Donald Rodney contended that the Magistrate failed to admit his defence, namely, the public eyewitness’s account by him, which precluded a charge of possession and read into evidence in the court’s record by the Police witness under oath and the true unsworn statement he made in his defence in open court.
The convict argued that all he would have said in his defence before he was convicted was not included in the records of appeal and extraneous and inadmissible statements had also been placed in the records of appeal. Rodney argued, too, that the Magistrate failed to allow him time and facilities to prepare his defence which is a breach of Article 144 (2) (C) of the Constitution.
Further to that, he contended that the prosecution established no case against him, and as such, the matter should have been dismissed at the close of the prosecution’s case. In this regard, he submitted to the Appeal Court that the decision of the Magistrate was unreasonable and cannot be supported since there is no evidence that he had explosives. He is therefore asking that his conviction and sentence be set aside and/or reversed.
Donald Rodney is being represented by Attorney-at-Law Sanjeev Datadin, while Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions Dionne McCammon is appearing on behalf of the State. The appeal will be heard by the Chancellor of the Judiciary (ag) Justice Yonette Cummings-Edwards and Justices of Appeal Dawn Gregory and Rishi Persaud.
The Guyana Court of Appeal is scheduled to hold a further hearing in this matter on March 25, 2021. Arguments have not yet commenced.
According to reports, Donald Rodney was the only eyewitness to the June 13, 1980 assassination of his brother, Dr Walter Rodney, the co-leader of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA), who was killed in Georgetown when a walkie-talkie given to him exploded in his car.
A Commission of Inquiry (CoI) held in 2015 under the previous PPP/C Administration found that Dr Walter Rodney’s death was a State killing and that the then Prime Minister Forbes Burnham had to have known about the plot.