Accused murderers walk
It was an incident that outraged family and friends in June of 2002, when sixty-four year old Cleophas Burgess was attacked in his home at number 164 Neal Penn Road and left for dead on his back steps. Three men: Keon Joseph, Lionel Sampson, and Kenroy Clark Smith were accused of murdering the elderly man. The case started two weeks ago, but today the three accused men walked out of the courtroom of Supreme Court Justice Adolph Lucas free men after a key piece of prosecution evidence and caution statements given to police by Joseph, Sampson, and Clark were deemed inadmissible. With that, the case for prosecutor Marjorie Moyston crumbled and Justice Lucas dismissed the case. This afternoon an angry daughter of the deceased, Sharon Burgess, told News 5’s Patrick Jones that the justice system failed the family.
Sharon Burgess, Daughter of the Deceased
?The three young men that were involved with the brutal injury of my father on the nineteenth of June 2002 was released today because of insufficient evidence given by the prosecution proving to the court that they haven?t given their caution statements voluntarily.?
Patrick Jones
?In other words they are claiming that the police beat them??
Sharon Burgess
?Yes, they are claiming several things. They are claiming that they were shocked by electrical outlet; they were claiming that they were forced by the police officers. One of them claim that they had given a previous statement and in turn he must write his version of what happened. To the court they are saying that that cannot work in the court of law. By that they had dismissed the whole case.?
Patrick Jones
?Now what is the family going to do? What?s the options left to you??
Sharon Burgess
?Well basically with me it is done; it is finished. Or it should be left on hold until the higher court of justice intervene.?
?From the start when it happened the nineteenth of June 2002, I had always believed that it was going come to down to this: that the criminals always get the last laugh. They always get all these preference in our judiciary system and it is failing us. And this system will eventually cause good citizens to turn bad if it is not being addressed properly.?
In a telephone conversation from his office this afternoon, Director of Public Prosecutions Kirk Anderson told News 5 that it is doubtful that his office will seek to reinstate charges against Joseph, Sampson, and Clark. With the burden of proof resting squarely on the shoulders of the prosecutor to prove that the caution statements were freely given by the accused, Anderson says that he is confident that Crown Counsel Moyston presented the case the best way she could based on the evidence that was available. The trial judge evidently disagreed, hence the dismissal.
