Black Immigrant Daily News
Rushane Barnett, the 23-year-old man who killed his five cousins, including a toddler, will be 84 years old when he becomes eligible for parole.
His case, for which the sentence was handed down in the Home Circuit Court in Kingston on Thursday, sets legal precedence for sentencing other accused people convicted of multiple murders.
According to presiding judge Justice Leighton Pusey, a number of factors were considered when handing down the judgement of five life sentences and 61 years and eight months served before Barnett becomes eligible for parole.
The sentencing hearing for the accused was concluded on September 22, where a number of reports from different agencies were compiled for the judge’s consideration.
Rushane Barnett, the man convicted of killing his five cousins, being escorted by police officers. (File photo)
On June 28, when the matter first came before the Home Circuit Court, Director of Public Prosecutions Paula Llewellyn said the prosecution would apply for the death penalty upon Barnett’s conviction. Even before he got legal representation, the confessed murderer had indicated that he would plead guilty.
Using the Legal Aid Act, the court provided an attorney for Barnett and ordered that a forensic psychiatric report be done.
On July 28, Barnett pleaded guilty to five counts of murder, and a sentencing hearing was held on September 22. It was also at that time that the notice of the death penalty was withdrawn by Llewellyn.In withdrawing the application for the death penalty, she said it would no longer be appropriate to ask for it when the accused pleaded guilty.
The DPP also asked that Barnett be sentenced on each count of murder to life imprisonment, with eligibility for parole becoming an option after 60 years.
At the sentencing hearing, the court considered Barnett’s caution and question-and-answer statements. It also relied on information from the victim’s impact statement, social inquiry report, forensic psychiatric report, and the antecedent report from the police.
Justice Pusey said the circumstances under which the murders were committed – their brutality, the number of victims, and the speed at which the murders were committed – rose to the level where the accused would spend some 60 years in prison before the possibility of parole.
Justice Pusey said in considering the sentence, he also relied on the victim impact statement of Gwendolyn Wright McKnight, the mother and grandmother of the victims.
Relatives of the Clarendon family killed in June this year, Gwendolyn Wright McKnight (right) and Leonorda Wright Bennett, are seen outside the Home Circuit Court in downtown Kingston on Thursday after the sentence was handed down for the man convicted of their five famiy members’ murders.
This new development in court helps the court to understand how the crimes affect the victims. However, any recommendation about the sentencing of the accused is not binding on the court nor would it guide the court’s decision on sentencing.
The Home Circuit Court judge said that the social inquiry report and forensic psychiatric report were two pieces of documents that gave insight into the mental state of the Barnett before, during and after the killings.
The forensic psychiatric report showed that the convict has no major mental illness, he appeared eager to deflect responsibility for the offence, claiming McKnight put obeah on him, and, he appears deceitful and superficially charming and lacks empathy and remorse for the killings.
Justice Pusey pointed out that what was telling was that Barnett believed that his punishment for the murders should be that he be given oral medication and placed in a single cell to serve a one-year sentence and then be released.
Barnett had no previous conviction based on his antecedent.
The court took guidance from a number of legal principles on sentencing for similar nature offences, although none of the facts of those cases’ quite matched what Barnett had done, setting precedence for similar cases should they arise in the future.
He also considered sections of the Offences Against the Person Act, the Jamaica Sentencing Guidelines, the Criminal Justice and Administration Act, and the Parole Act, among others, to arrive at the sentence.
Justice Pusey explained in court that there are certain actions that an accused person may take that could give him a “discount” on his sentencing. He said, in law, pleading guilty is one consideration that could get an accused person discounts of between 15 and 50 per cent of the sentence.
A passer-by was brought to tears outside the courthouse on Thursday when she heard that mass murderer Rushane Barnett had been sentenced.
However, he said the Criminal Justice and Administration Act would not allow for such a discount in Barnett’s case based on the nature of the killings.
Before the Act, judges relied on common law or laws not written into legislation to guide the sentencing of accused persons in murder matters. He said some would argue that Barnett would be eligible for a discount under the common law, but he disagreed.
His reasons for disagreeing is that there was compelling evidence pointing to the convict, who was named as a person of interest as soon as the bodies were discovered.
Justice Pusey said Barnett had been living with the family he butchered, and the brutal nature of the killings would remove any discount.
Justice Pusey also pointed out that any discount given under that dispensation would see the convict getting a lower sentence than what would be a fair and just sentence. He said the fact that the death penalty is off the table is a significant benefit to the accused.
The judge said, based on rulings in other Commonwealth territories, Barnett’s case would have qualified him for the death sentence had he gone to trial and been convicted.
The Home Circuit Court judge agreed that the recommendation of 60 years imprisonment before being eligible for parole would be an adequate sentence for the crime.
In going through the sentencing process, Justice Pusey said Barnett’s discount started at 55 years imprisonment before he is eligible for parole. He added 10 more years to the sentence as the victims were killed in their homes, he breached their trust as a guest in their home, and the multiple wounds on the victims.
The judge believed that Barnett had planned ahead of time to kill his victims, and both the psychiatrist and the social inquirers commented on his lack of remorse for the killings or appreciation for what his actions have caused.
However, due to his age, no previous convictions against him, time spent in custody, and his early guilty plea, his resulting eligibility was 61 years and eight months.
Llewellyn, who commented on the sentence outside court on Thursday, said she is satisfied with the ruling and salutes the judge, who, in the interest of the public, live-streamed the sentencing and was clear in setting out the sentencing procedure.
She noted that the sentence is unprecedented, and it should act as a deterrent for those considering similar acts.
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