Attorney Says Success of the Appeal is Unlikely
Leslie, Baptist and Meighan have since been served with a notice of appeal. According to Senior Counsel Dickie Bradley, the possibility of a successful appeal seems unlikely since there is insufficient evidence to begin with.
Richard ‘Dickie’ Bradley, Attorney
“In this case, the judge is the jury so he hears that excuse me where are the facts, where are the evidence that this man shot the person. Is there any evidence that the other person was present of fired shots? And so now you don’t have any jury so why engage in a farce? Why engage in knowing that there is no evidence in front of you when the prosecution present all their witnesses? Still sit there and allow the three men to give all explanations to be cross examined, to call their witnesses, when you know there is no evidence? How can you call on a man to answer a charge when there is nothing against him? I was at a yard, I left in a vehicle, later on somebody is shot. Where is the evidence? Who knows if I wasn’t in fact…I asked to be taken home, but I got out somewhere else. So that decision may raise some legal issues and perhaps that is the reason why the D.P.P. is in fact appearing for there to be an appeal process so that it can canvass the whole legal issues.”
Reporter
“What does this say for the three men who walked and are out free from murder after three years on remand? What does that say if the D.P.P. is appealing and it should come back before the court?”
Richard ‘Dickie’ Bradley
“A court of law has acquitted them; they are all free. If the appeal is successful they will then be rearrested and re-indicted for murder and there will then be another trial. And whatever happens in that other court, out of an abundance of caution, whoever are the attorneys would then say we won’t make a no-case submission; we’ll just allow the matter to go on, waste the court’s time. Have the client, the accused persons stand up and say your honor, I left the car at such and such a time and I went home and so and so and so. That is the nature of the matter. They are acquitted in a court of law after a trial and they are free and so it will depend on the appeal process to determine what will happen.”
The trio was acquitted of the murder of James Noralez on October twenty-eight.