Maroc - NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 02/Dec 18:21

Cascade triple murderer loses bid for freedom

TWICE convicted killer Daniel Agard has lost his constitutional and judicial review claim for his immediate release from prison on an alleged miscalculation by prison authorities. Justice Westmin James dismissed Agard’s lawsuit on December 1, ruling that the Commissioner of Prisons acted lawfully in calculating his sentence. He ruled that Agard was not entitled to remission for the more than two decades he spent on remand or under a death sentence. James held that remission applied only to prisoners serving a determinate sentence and cannot be earned while awaiting trial or awaiting execution, and he further ruled that the commissioner properly relied on the perfected sentencing order directing that Agard’s 28-year term start on July 30, 2024. On July 30, 2024, Justice Gillian Scotland resentenced Agard for the brutal triple murder of the Cropper family in 2001. He was sentenced to 28 years. He received the relevant deduction for the time he had spent incarcerated since December 2001, but complained that the prison authorities failed in its calculation of his sentence. His lawsuit contended that the prison authorities limited the prison rules on remission. He said the warrants section of the Port of Spain prison told him after calculating the sentence imposed on him by the court, his earliest possible date of release was January 2028, with the further possible date of release being July 2052. Agard said he was told his sentence was calculated to start from July 29, 2024, and after the time spent was subtracted, he would only receive remission for the remaining 22 months. His lawsuit contended that the prison rules on remission were not properly applied and the proper calculation of his sentence should have ended on August 19, 2020. However, James rejected Agard’s argument that he was entitled to immediate release once all time served and remission were credited. He also declined to grant damages or any of the declarations sought and made no order as to costs, because of the constitutional issues raised. In his ruling, James said Agard’s constitutional rights to liberty and protection of the law were not breached, and that the commissioner properly calculated his earliest possible release date as March 2028. James said the prison rules did not permit “double benefit” for pre-sentence custody and remission. “If remission is granted for a period already credited as time served, it would artificially reduce the remaining term by counting the same period twice. This result cannot have been intended by Parliament. “The rules enable the first respondent to grant remission to convicted inmates serving a sentence on account of their good behaviour and industry. “I, therefore, agree with the defendants that the requirement that as a pre-requisite to being eligible for remission the inmate must be serving a sentence of imprisonment.” James said while Agard was on remand, he was not serving a sentence and could not earn remission. “This principle applies with even greater force to the claimant, who was originally under a sentence of death, not a determinate term of imprisonment. “He became eligible for remission only after resentencing. “Prior to being resentenced, he was not serving a sentence of imprisonment, he was to be executed and subsequently not given a determinate sentence. “The earlier period therefore cannot be considered for remission. Further based on the rules, convicted inmates serving a sentence may be considered for remission based on their good behaviour and industry and therefore time spent not serving a fixed sentence could not be regarded when determining the claimant's eligibility for remission.” Agard, 39, was twice convicted for the Cropper murders. He first went to trial in 2004 with co-accused Lester Pitman. Both were convicted and sentenced to hang for the murders of Maggie Lee, Lynette Lithgow-Pearson and John Cropper on December 11, 2001. Agard was the great-nephew of John Cropper and the late independent senator Angela Cropper. Lee was his great-grandmother, and Pearson was his great-aunt. Cropper, a British national; his mother-in-law, Lee; and his sister-in-law, Lithgow-Pearson, a former BBC television broadcaster, were killed at Cropper’s home on Mt Anne Drive, Second Avenue, Cascade, between December 11 and 12, 2001. Their bodies were found on December 13. They had been bound and gagged with electrical wire, and their throats were slit. Agard successfully appealed his convictions and a retrial was ordered. He was convicted again and again sentenced to death on Sept 13, 2013. He appealed and lost in July 2019. He did not pursue a further appeal to the Privy Council. Pitman successfully challenged his conviction at the Court of Appeal. His death sentence was commuted and he was ordered to serve a minimum of 40 years before being eligible for release. In 2023, Agard was removed from death row after filing a constitutional motion. He had been there since September 2013 — a period of nine years, five months and 17 days. Justice Joan Charles ruled that any attempt to carry out his death sentence would be unconstitutional, vacated the sentence, and ordered his resentencing. On July 18, the High Court ordered the State to pay Agard $45,000 in compensation after another inmate cut his face during a prison incident. Agard was also among dozens of prisoners who benefited from a 2012 ruling related to an alleged beating during a 2006 prison riot. In 2023, however, the Court of Appeal overturned their awards and held that their matters should not have been treated as a test-case agreement. Earlier this year, the Privy Council overturned the Court of Appeal ruling and the matter is expected to return for assessment. Agard was represented by attorneys Gerald Ramdeen and Dayadai Harripaul. Rishi Dass, SC, Kellisha Bello, Avion Romain, Vandana Ramadhar, Rachel Wright, Domonique Bernard and Chelsea Downes represented the prisons commissioner and the Attorney General. The post Cascade triple murderer loses bid for freedom appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.