Appeal Court upholds life sentence for man who chopped farmer to death

TO REMAIN IN JAIL FOR MURDER: Dhupaul Singh

The Appeal Court on Tuesday upheld a life sentence that was imposed on Dhupaul Singh for the brutal murder of Balkissoon back in September 2014. Singh has claimed that Balkissoon, a farmer, had provoked him.

A 12-member jury trial back in 2016 before Justice Jo-Ann Barlow, found Singh guilty of the capital offense. The trial judge then sentenced the convicted killer to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole until after serving 25 years in jail.

Through his Attorney-at-law, Mark Conway, an appeal was filed challenging the conviction and sentence on several grounds. Among the arguments was that Justice Barlow erred in law in giving the summation of provocation to the jury.

“The Trial Judge’s summation failed to reflect an adequate summary and analysis of the facts or evidence that should have been presented to the jury for their deliberation as to whether the appellant was provoked by the deceased and this failure is a material omission which may have deprived the appellant of a verdict of guilty of manslaughter by reason of provocation,” Conway argued in his submissions.

Taking this into consideration, Conway had asked the Court to substitute his client’s murder conviction with manslaughter and in doing so relied on the case of Kubert George v The State which was decided by the very Guyana Court of Appeal. Conway noted that the Court, in that case, set aside the appellant’s conviction for murder and substituted a verdict of guilty for manslaughter, and instituted a prison sentence of 20 years.

Moreover, Conway argued that the sentence imposed on his client is severe and not in keeping with established sentencing guidelines. Conway contended, too, that the sentence imposed by Justice Barlow did not reflect the principles outlined in the Caribbean Court of Justice case of R v da Costa Hall in which it is stated that full credit should be given for any time spent in pre-trial custody.

In the end, the Court of Appeal rejected most of the arguments proffered on Singh’s behalf. The appellate court upheld his conviction and life sentence but lowered his parole eligibility to 20 years.

Deliberating on the appeal were Chancellor of the Judiciary Justice Yonette Cummings-Edwards and Justices of Appeal Dawn Gregory-Barnes, SC, and Rishi Persaud.

On the day in question, Singh and Balkissoon were involved in a heated argument over remarks hurled by Singh at the now dead man’s wife. The row quickly turned into a scuffle during which Singh chopped Balkissoon about his body with a cutlass. The incident occurred Helena Number Two, Mahaica, East Coast Demerara.