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Justice Kevin Ramcharan. –

A HIGH Court judge has struck out two standing orders of the police service which deal with how long officers can keep their pocket diaries and station diaries.

In a ruling on Thursday, Justice Kevin Ramcharan declared that standing orders 16.13 and 17.11 were unreasonable as they allowed for the destruction of relevant records and material before the expiration of all limitation periods in court proceedings, as prescribed under the Limitation of Certain Actions Act.

The judge e-mailed his decision to attorneys and will provide his reasons at a later date.

Ramcharan was asked to determine a judicial review and constitutional claim filed by a Gasparillo man, Keron Phillip, whose car was impounded in Woodbrook in 2014. Phillip was charged for obstructing an officer and using insulting language after he asked why his car had been impounded.

In 2017, the charges against him were dismissed. In order to pursue a claim for malicious prosecution, Phillip’s attorneys sent a freedom of information request in April 2020 for copies of station diary extracts and pocket diaries, among other documents relating to his arrest.

In June, Phillip was told the requests had been denied because the extracts from the various registers were destroyed in keeping with the provisions of the standing orders.

The two standing orders which were challenged set out what should be done with pocket diaries after the prosecution of a criminal complaint ends and how long a station diary could be kept.

In his constitutional claim, Phillip’s attorneys Anand Ramlogan, SC, Renuka Rambhajan, Dr Che Dindial, and Jared Jagroo, argued that the standing orders conflicted with the limitation period of four years set out in law to bring a civil claim.

In response to Phillip’s claim, ACP William Nurse, who is head of the police service standing order committee since 2018, said the two contentious standing orders were among those scheduled for review and redraft. He said the committee’s mandate was to look at the standing orders to ensure they conform with the duties and requirements of police officers.

Nurse said although the covid19 pandemic had affected the work of the committee, when it does meet, the draft of the two standing orders will give consideration to not permitting the destruction of pocket and station diaries.

In his affidavit in response, Supt Glen Charles of the Port of Spain city police said there was a severe storage challenge at its storage container at Abbatoir Road and they took guidance from the police’s standing orders to allow for the creation of space by destroying books, registers, diaries and other documents no longer required for any investigation or court matter.

The Commissioner and Attorney General were represented by attorneys Michael Quamina, Tenille Ramkissoon, Vincent Jardine, and Tiffany Kissoon.

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Police are investigating a shooting at Babonneau in the early hours of Friday that left a man and a woman with gunshot injuries.

Law enforcement officials said they received the shooting report around 2:00 am.

According to information, the woman and the man both sustained gunshot injuries to the hand.

Law enforcement sources told St Lucia Times that their injuries, which did not appear life-threatening, were treated at the hospital, which discharged the patients.

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There are no further details at this time.

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Whether South Carolina can start executing prisoners again either with a firing squad or electric chair is now in the hands of a judge after a trial over whether shooting or electrocuting inmates is cruel and unusual punishment banned by the US Constitution.

Lawyers for four death row inmates argued this week the prisoners would feel terrible pain whether their bodies were “cooking” by electricity or heart stopped by marksman’s bullet — assuming they are on target.

Attorneys for the state countered with their own experts who said death by the yet-to-be-used firing squad or the rarely-used-this-century electric chair would be instantaneous and the condemned would not feeling any pain.

The state Supreme Court ordered Judge Jocelyn Newman to rule within 30 days, but it almost certainly won’t be the end of the case. Whichever side loses is expected to appeal. From 1995 to 2011 – when the state’s last execution was performed – South Carolina carried out the death penalty on 36 prisoners with lethal injections. But the state’s supply of lethal injection drugs expired in 2013, and pharmaceutical companies have refused to sell more for executions.

Prison officials asked lawmakers for help and in 2021 they made the state’s electric chair, built in 1912, the default method for executions and let prisoners choose a new firing squad if they wish.

During this week’s trial, a Corrections Department official said he devised the firing squad protocols after consulting a prison official in Utah, location of the only three inmates to die by firing squad since 1977. Colie Rushton, the department’s security director, testified the .308 Winchester ammunition to be used is designed to fragment and split up in the heart to make death happen as fast as possible, according to media reports from the trial.

Much of the rest of the trial was each side calling its own experts to detail whether inmates feel any pain before they die.

The human brain remains conscious at least 15 seconds after a person’s heart stops beating, said Dr. Jonathan Arden, who formerly led the Washington D.C. Medical Examiner’s office. Arden, testifying on behalf of the inmates said it appeared at least 10 per cent of prisoners in cases he reviewed remained conscious after the first shock of an electrocution.

“Forgive me for saying it so plain,” Arden testified about the electric chair, “but you get the effects on parts on the body, including internal organs, that is the equivalent of cooking.”

Experts for the state testified the shock delivered by the electric chair is so great and the use of ammunition that shatters when it hits bone creating a number of fragments to destroy the heart means almost immediate loss of consciousness and no pain, retired forensic pathologist Dr. D’Michelle DuPre said.

“I believe it would be so quick they would not experience pain at all,” DuPre testified, according to media reports.

Lawyers for the inmates also submitted autopsy photos and reports from inmates who died in the electric chair, saying they demonstrate the pain suffered. Those documents will be reviewed by the judge and not made public. Just three prisoners in South Carolina have chosen the electric chair since lethal injection was made available in 1995.

In closing arguments, lawyers for the state said the other side did not prove that electrocution or a firing squad is more painful than lethal injection, a method that has long been allowed across the country.

“We are in a court of law. This court’s job is to decide questions of law based on the law and based on the facts that it’s heard,” said attorney William Grayson Lambert who is representing the state.

Lawyers for Justice 360, a group that fights for fairness and transparency in death penalty and other major criminal cases and is representing the inmates, said this case wasn’t just about cold facts.

“This case isn’t all about science,” attorney Joshua Kendrick said according to media reports. “Our decisions today are guided by mercy.”

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Follow Jeffrey Collins on Twitter at https://twitter.com/JSCollinsAP.

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Sports

Tyra Gittens of Trinidad and Tobago competes in the women’s long jump qualification, in the Alexander Stadium, at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England, on Friday. (AP PHOTO) –

THE TRINIDAD and Tobago men’s 4×400-metre (mile) team and long jumper Tyra Gittens both advanced to finals at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England, on Friday.

The TT quartet of Dwight St Hillaire, Che Lara, Machel Cedenio and Kashief King clocked three minutes, 7.12 seconds (3:07.12) to finish third in heat two of round one. TT are expected to strengthen their team for the final with Jereem Richards and Asa Guevara available.

The final will be held at 3.30 pm TT time, on Sunday.

Kenya won heat two in a season’s best time of 3:06.76 and India were second in 3:06.97 to earn spots in the final.

Barbados faded in the final leg of the race, but finished fourth in 3:07.23 to book a place in the final.

Four teams also qualified for the final from heat one – Botswana (3:05.11), Jamaica (3:05.20), Zambia (3:06.02) and Nigeria (3:06.36).

Gittens finished sixth in Group A in the women’s long jump qualifying round to advance to the final.

She jumped 6.18m on her first attempt, fouled her second effort and leaped 6.28m on her third, which was enough to qualify. Australian Brooke Buschkuehl won Group A with a 6.84m performance.

A total of 13 athletes qualified for the final on Sunday at 2.05 pm.

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Las Perseidas o ‘lágrimas de San Lorenzo’, el espectáculo celeste que cada mes de agosto alumbra el firmamento, podría quedar ‘deslucido’ este año por la Luna llena. La NASA advierte que la noche del 12 al 13 de agosto, en el periodo de mayor intensidad de la vistosa lluvia de meteoros, el satélite natural de la Tierra se encontrará en su fase de mayor visibilidad, pudiendo interferir en la observación del fenómeno astronómico.

No obstante, si se encuentra a la intemperie en la medianoche del 12 al 13 de agosto, la agencia espacial aconseja mirar al cielo: quizá tenga suerte y vea los meteoros más brillantes.

It’s a shine off!
This year’s Perseids meteor shower will have to contend with the full Moon’s brightness. Look up if you’re outside after midnight (local time) on Aug. 12 or 13, when it’ll be at its peak–you might be lucky and see the brightest ones. https://t.co/vFkqWhKOmi pic.twitter.com/iPP9lsYmzx

— NASA (@NASA) August 1, 2022

El fenómeno se puede apreciar entre el 17 de julio y el 24 de agosto, aunque es necesario determinar la fecha óptima para ver la mayor cantidad de estrellas fugaces sin que la observación se vea interferida por la Luna. Según el portal Xataka, este día es el 6 de agosto.

Ese día el ocaso de la Luna tendrá lugar a una hora temprana: a las 1:58 en España; a las 1:35 en Mexico y a las 2:12 en Argentina. A partir de esas horas, nada impedirá disfrutar de la maravillosa vista de las estrellas fugaces.

En cualquier caso, lo más importante es alejarse de las ciudades, que pueden opacar todo el cielo estrellado con su luz artificial. Los expertos recomiendan ir a poblaciones pequeñas y zonas de montaña para obtener condiciones ideales para la observación.

Las Perseidas son fragmentos del cometa Swift-Tuttle, una bola de polvo helada que orbita alrededor del Sol cada 133 años. Todos los años la Tierra pasa cerca de la trayectoria del cometa y sus restos se queman al penetrar en nuestra atmósfera, creando la lluvia más popular de meteoros.

Noticia original de RT en Español.

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