Justice Ephrain Georges, a High Court judge granted...

Justice Ephrain Georges, a High Court judge granted a stay of execution to five convicted murderers scheduled to hang during the week. He granted Michael Mason a 15-day stay and Mellanson Harris, Marvin Joseph, Lorriston Cornwall and Confesor Valdez Franco 21 days to appeal against their death sentences to London's Privy Council. Harris and Joseph were convicted in 1996 of killing American-born British residents Kathleen and William Cleaver and Britons Thomas Williams and Ian Cridland aboard a yacht docked off the Barbuda coast. The victims were robbed and shot. Mason was convicted of the 1995 shooting of 26-year-old Canadian tourist Wendy Newbigging, of Woodbridge, Ontario. Cornwall was found guilty of his girlfriend's murder, and Valdez Franco of the death of a man from his native Dominican Republic. The stays were issued a day after the Antiguan Spanish-speaking community picketed Prime Minister Lester Bird's office. Protesters also staged daily vigils outside Her Majesty's Prison gate adjacent to the Antigua Recreation Ground in St. John's. Harris, Joseph and Mason had been scheduled for execution on January 27 while Cornwall and Franco had been set for January 28.