–Anthony Morrison to face new trial

THE jury trying Anthony Morrison for the murder of his reputed wife Donna Thomas in 2012 disagreed on a verdict Tuesday.In relation to murder, the verdict has to be unanimous – all 12 jurors must be saying either ‘Not guilty’ or ‘Guilty’.
But in this particular case, eight of them were saying ‘not guilty’ while four were saying ‘guilty’.
In light of the disagreement, Presiding Judge, Mr. Navindra Singh had no alternative than to further remand the prisoner to prison and order him to face a new trial at the next criminal session.
The case for the prosecution conducted by lawyer Miss Natasha Backer was that the accused murdered his reputed wife at D’Urban Street, Georgetown sometime between May 25 and 26, 2012.
He pleaded not guilty but had made an oral confession in which he admitted cutting the woman on her hand. However, he denied causing her death by asphyxiation, as stated by the doctor who performed the post-mortem.
Defence counsel, Miss Onassis Granville had made a no-case submission on behalf of her client, but this was overruled by the judge.
On the resumption, yesterday, both the defence counsel and the prosecutrix addressed the jury, asking for respective verdicts of not guilty and guilty.
The addresses were followed by a summing-up of the evidence with directions by the trial judge.
The jury disagreed on a verdict after a three-hour deliberation.