On January 7, the Constitutional Court, comprising...

On January 7, the Constitutional Court, comprising Chief Justice Lensley Wolfe, Justice Cooke and Justice Karl Harrison, heard and dismissed a motion filed by Neville Lewis against his prison conditions and the 6-month limit set by Governor General Howard Cooke for his case to be considered by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Neville Lewis and his co-accused, Peter Blaine, were convicted and sentenced to death in October 1994 for the murder of businessman Victor Higgs on November 11, 1992. Lewis was scheduled to be hanged on August 27 last year but he brought a motion in the Supreme Court contending that his constitutional rights were being infringed because his petition to the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (IACHR) was still pending. The Constitutional Court held that there was nothing in the Constitution which required the local Privy Council or the Governor-General to comply with any report from the Commission. The court unanimously held that Lewis should be hanged and gave Lewis 10 days to file the appeal. The deadline passed and the appeal was not filed. Attorney General A.J. Nicholson said: "In these circumstances, the Court of Appeal ought not to grant any further stay than that which was granted by the Constitutional Court" and accused Lewis' lawyer Dennis Daly of engaging in delaying tactics to thwart Jamaican law.