Richard Sallybanks, Christina Josephides, April O'Neill and Emma White are pleased to have acted pro bono for a prisoner serving a life sentence in the Bahamas in his application and appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council for resentencing in the light of the Privy Council's decision in Bowe and another v the Queen [2006] UKPC 10. BCL had originally acted in 1996 when succeeding in preventing the client's execution and thereafter successfully arguing that his death sentence should be quashed.
On 22 April 2025, Judgment was handed down, and we are pleased that our client's appeal has been allowed. The life sentence will be quashed, and his case will now be remitted back to the Supreme Court in the Bahamas for resentencing. In the meantime, after more than 32 years in custody, our client has been released on bail.
With huge thanks to Amanda Clift-Matthews of Doughty Street Chambers and Kyan Pucks of QEB Hollis Whiteman Chambers for their exceptional work in securing this hugely satisfying outcome.
The Judgment can be found here: https://jcpc.uk/cases/jcpc-2021-0117