Medical experts to be cross-examined in Shorn Samuel case

Kay Bacchus-Browne, attorney for death row inmate Shorn Samuel, wants to have medical experts for both the crown and defence present in court so that they can be cross-examined.{{more}}

High Court judges earlier this week granted an adjournment to Bacchus-Browne to the next sitting of the Eastern Caribbean Appeal court in February 2012, so that both doctors can be present.

Bacchus-Browne is representing Samuel, who was placed on death row for the December 2006 beheading of Stacey Wilson at the Leeward Bus Terminal.

Bacchus-Browne said she wants to cross-examine the crown’s medical expert from Trinidad and Tobago.

She noted that the defence’s medical doctor will be coming from England.

When the matter came up for hearing back in June this year, Bacchus-Browne said Samuel’s appeal is based on a report from Psychiatrist Professor Nigel Eastman, whom she said found that the appellant is suffering from paranoid psychotic disorder and personality disorder.

At that time, the attorney told Appeal court judges Ola Mae Edwards, Ian Mitchell and Davidson Baptiste that she was appealing on the grounds of diminished responsibility; which in law is a potential defence by which defendants argue that although they broke the law they should not be held fully criminally liable for doing so, as their mental functions were “diminished” or impaired.(KW)