JUSTICE James Bovell-Drakes has granted $300,000 bail to Paul Murray, whose mother, Denise Farley, petitioned the High Court on Wednesday, for his pre-trial freedom, pending an appeal hearing. Murray had been previously convicted and sentenced to four years imprisonment for trafficking 239 grammes of cannabis (marijuana) at Edinburgh Village, East Bank Berbice, on February 6, 2011.
In addition, to the grant, the judge ordered that the convict is to report to the Station Sergeant of Central Police Station, in New Amsterdam, on alternative Fridays, beginning today and hand over his passport to the Registrar of the Supreme Court.
The affidavit attached to the petition, drafted by attorney-at-law Mrs. Kim Kyte-John, said the prisoner is a mentally challenged person who has been treated at the National Psychiatric Hospital, since his conviction.
A medical certificate from New Amsterdam Hospital dated January 5, 2012, indicted that Murray was diagnosed with an abscess to the neck and chest and that he is still being treated for it.
The documentation also said the prison condition militates against his illness and his health is on the wane.
The petitioner, having been advised by his attorney, said he verily believes that the Full Court appeals from magistrates in the Berbice Magisterial District have not been heard for several years and that  a real likelihood exists that, by the time his appeal is heard, he would have served the sentence imposed.