Skip to main content arrow-down arrow-tail-right arrow-triangle-right calendar camera compass download email eye facebook flag mail phone pin play send square-right tag twitter youtube badge message

23 Years Being Convicted of Murder, Privy Council Orders Immediate Release of Prisoner Serving Life Imprisonment

  • News
  • 14 Jul 2011

In a judgment delivered on 6th July 2011, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council allowed the appeal of Mr. Rajendra Krishna, a prisoner serving a life sentence in Trinidad & Tobago, and ordered his immediate release.

The Death Penalty Project assisted Mr. Krishna in his appeal to the Privy Council.

More than 23 years ago, in January 1988, Mr. Krishna was convicted in the High Court of shooting and killing Mycee Jagmohan during the course of an attempted burglary and was sentenced to death. His co-accused was acquitted.

In December 1995, after 7 years as a condemned prisoner, Mr. Krishna’s death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment as a result of the excessive time he had spent on death row. His appeal against his conviction to the Court of Appeal of Trinidad was refused on 5th October 1995 and some 12 years later, the Death Penalty Project agreed to assist Mr. Krishna in taking his case to the Privy Council in order to challenge his conviction.

In their judgment last week, the Privy Council allowed Mr. Krishna’s appeal on the grounds that there were significant irregularities at trial, which inevitably affected the safety of his conviction. The Privy Council noted that as Mr. Krishna had already spent 23 years in custody, no retrial should take place and Mr. Krishna should be immediately released from prison.

Edward Fitzgerald QC from Doughty Street Chambers and Helen Law from Matrix Chambers were instructed pro bono by Simons Muirhead & Burton to represent Mr. Krishna in the Privy Council.

Saul Lehrfreund and Parvais Jabbar, Executive Directors, The Death Penalty Project

Latest news

Privy Council clarifies the approach trial judges should adopt when explaining “intent” to juries in The Bahamas
Read More
International Women's Day Q&A: Women in Human Rights
Read More
Cayman News Service: UK court rules against closed-door legal hearing
Read More
Cayman Loop News - Justin Ramoon, sentenced for murder, gets go ahead for judicial review
Read More
PRESS RELEASE - Privy Council refuses to allow Cayman Government to hold secret hearings in prisoner transfer case
Read More
Cayman Compass - Privy Council rules against secret trial for exiled killers
Read More
Cayman Marl Road - Privy Council refuses secret hearings in Cayman prisoner transfer case
Read More
NEW op-ed: Time to scrap capital punishment in Taiwan
Read More
Privy Council: Appeal dismissed amidst serious disclosure failings
Read More
James Guthrie, impressive barrister whose work in the Privy Council included a string of landmark cases – obituary
Read More
LATEST OP-ED: Hoyle & Jabbar - Death penalty doesn’t deter crime
Read More
New article in Kenya's The Star: Death row convicts in Kenya not threatened by penalty – findings
Read More
PRESS RELEASE - New research exploring socio-economic profiles of Kenya’s death row prisoners
Read More
Kenyan prisoners on death row weren’t deterred by the threat of the death penalty: new research findings
Read More
The Death Penalty Project pays tribute to James Guthrie KC
Read More
London-based NGO to challenge lawfulness of Guyana’s death penalty at CCJ
Read More
PRESS RELEASE - Guyana’s Court of Appeal refuses to declare the death penalty unconstitutional
Read More
The Conversation: 'Why has Kenya not abolished the death penalty? Habit and inertia'
Read More
Political and legal issues: reflections on our report launch in Kenya, Nairobi
Read More

Stay up-to-date with our work