NAZRUDEEN Jhoot called ‘Buddy’, who was convicted at the Berbice Assizes, of murdering his girlfriend’s father, Kemlall Mangal, at the man’s Cotton Tree Village home on August 25, 2008, was sentenced to death on Thursday.

A mixed jury, after deliberating for a little more than two hours, returned a unanimous guilty verdict against the accused.
Asked by presiding judge, Justice Brassington Reynolds what he had to say before the sentence was imposed, the convict replied: “Nothing.”
The marshal then instructed those in the courtroom to stand in silence as the sentencing was done.
The judge told Jhoot: “The sentence of the Court is that you be taken from this place to a lawful prison and thence to a place of execution and that you suffer death by hanging, and that your body be afterwards buried in the precincts of the prison in which you shall have been confined before your execution. And may the Lord have mercy on your soul.”
The condemned man showed no signs of emotion but his mother, Bibi Rahaman wept in the arms of relatives while the widow and other relatives of the victim departed.

LENIENCY
Meanwhile, prior to the imposition of the capital punishment, Defence Counsel Charrandas Persaud had pleaded with the Court to exercise leniency, pointing out that the killer was under the age of 18 years at the time he had committed  the crime.
However, State Prosecutor Prithima Kissoon was quick on her feet to remind the Court that age 17 years does not make the convict a juvenile according to the Young Persons Act.
“Moreover, the penalty is one laid down by statute. The accused is to be sentenced as an adult,” she insisted.
On Tuesday, Kissoon had urged the jurors to find that the case for the prosecution rested squarely on the caution statement attributed to Jhoot.
“Once you accept the caution statement as being given by the accused, you must convict. You must be fearless in returning a verdict against the accused,” Kissoon stated.
She added: “However, if you reject the statement, you reject the prosecution’s case.”
In her opening address, Kissoon said Jhoot lived one house away from the now dead man and Lisa Mangal, daughter of the latter, was engaged in a relationship with him, of which her parents had disapproved.