Privy Council
| Published date | 01 December 2003 |
| Date | 01 December 2003 |
| DOI | 10.1350/jcla.67.6.469.19437 |
| Subject Matter | Privy Council |
Privy Council
Trinidad and Tobago: Correctness of Directions to Jury
Brown and Isaac v The State [2003] UKPC 10 (Privy Council Appeal
No. 9 of 2002)
The two victims in this case had been found dead. The defendants,
Brown (also known as Foots—a significant point with regard to the
evidence) and Isaac (also known as Sonil) were convicted of their
murder. They appealed to the Privy Council following an unsuccessful
appeal to the Court of Appeal of Trinidad and Tobago against their initial
convictions for these offences. The evidence against them at trial was
that, one night, shortly before the victims died, the defendants had been
seen forcing the victims out of a house and leading them across the yard
and away down a track. As she was being dragged away, one of the
victims said to her mother ‘look Foots come here with a gun to kill me’.
A few minutes later, gunshots were heard. The bodies of the victims
were found the next morning, having each been shot through the
head.
The principal witnesses relating this evidence were, first, the mother
of one of the victims, and, secondly, a near neighbour. The mother lived
in premises above those occupied by her daughter. The mother knew
Brown, as he lived nearby and visited her daughter. She knew him as
Foots. The mother said that, on the night in question, she had seen Foots
dragging her daughter away and that her daughter had spoken the
words quoted above. She had also observed Isaac, whom she had seen
visiting Brown’s house over the past three months, pushing the second
victim and beating him with the flat of a cutlass (machete). The other
witness lived in the neighbourhood. He knew Brown as a neighbour and
Isaac as a visitor to Brown’s house. He, too, testified that he saw the
defendants dragging and pushing the victims across the yard and down
the track. He later heard gunshots. Following the discovery of the bodies
of the victims, the mother and the neighbour had made statements to
the police naming Brown and Isaac as the abductors of the victims. They
also identified the defendants at the police station following their arrest.
This occurred about a month after the murder, the witnesses having
been invited to the police station in order to confirm that they were the
right men. No identification parade was held.
At the trial, the defendants relied on separate alibis. Brown said he
had gone to the cinema with a friend, whilst Isaac claimed to have
watched a game of basketball and spent the night with a girl friend. Both
friends gave supporting evidence. The defendants also suggested that
the witnesses had made up the case against them. They were, however,
convicted of murder.
On appeal, both to the Court of Appeal and to the Privy Council,
Brown and Isaac sought to challenge the judge’s directions to the jury on
469
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