Keith Clarke
.png)
By Racquel Porter
A seven-member jury was on Tuesday afternoon empanelled, in the Home Circuit Court, at the start of the trial of the three JDF soldiers charged with the 2010, murder of businessman Keith Clarke.
The jury is expected to start hearing testimony on Wednesday morning.
The trial is expected to last four to six weeks.
The defendants are Lance Corporals Greg Tingling, Odel Buckley, and Private Arnold Henry.
Tuesday's start comes six years after it was halted when attorneys for the Jamaica Defence Force surprised prosecutors with immunity certificates that shielded the soldiers from prosecution for their actions during the operation.
The certificates were signed in February 2016 by Peter Bunting, who was Minister of National Security at that time.
But following a legal challenge, the Constitutional Review Court, in a majority decision handed down in February 2020, ruled that the certificates were manifestly unfair and unreasonable.
The Court of Appeal also affirmed an order by the Constitutional Court that the trial should go ahead.
Mr. Clarke was shot 21 times inside his home, located on Kirkland Close in St. Andrew, on March 27, 2010, during a police-military operation to apprehend then-fugitive drug lord, Christopher 'Dudus' Coke.
comments powered by Disqus
All feeds
