Death row inmates get parole eligibility

By Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter

FIVE OF the six death row inmates who last year successfully challenged the Governor-General's prerogative of mercy before the United Kingdom Privy Council, will each serve 35 years before they can be eligible for parole.

The sixth man was ordered to serve 25 years before parole when the Court of Appeal sat yesterday to determine how long they should spend in prison for the crimes committed. The sentences are to start three months after their convictions.

The UK Privy Council had a special sitting last year April to hear the complaints of the men who claimed they should not be hanged because of breaches of their constitutional rights.

The five -- Neville Lewis, Patrick Taylor and his brother Desmond Taylor; Anthony McLeod, Christopher Brown and Steve Shaw -- had all appealed to the UK Privy Council against their convictions and death sentences but their appeals were dismissed.

Neville Lewis, 39, who was convicted in October, 1994, and sentenced to hang for the murder of Kingston businessman and golf consultant Vic Higgs, 59, was yesterday ordered to serve 35 years before he could be eligible for parole. Lewis and Peter Blaine were convicted of Higgs' murder.

Higgs was on his way to Kingston in October 1992 when the men asked him for a ride. They killed him and threw his body in a mudlake near Ewarton, St. Catherine, and stole his car. The men gave cautioned statements in which they blamed each other for the murder.

Patrick Taylor is to serve 35 years before parole, the Court of Appeal ordered yesterday. Two weeks ago the Court of Appeal ordered that Desmond Taylor and Steve Shaw should each serve 35 years before they were eligible for parole. The three were convicted in 1994 for the March 1992 murder of four members of the Pedlar family in St. James. They were chopped to death at their home.

Anthony McLeod is to serve 25 years for the 1994 murder of Anthony Buchanan, an off duty policeman. He was convicted in September 1995 and sentenced to hang. Christopher Brown, who was convicted in October 1993 of the murder of 65-year-old Alvin Smith in November 1991, is to serve 35 years before parole. Brown faced two trials as the Court of Appeal in 1994 ordered a retrial for him. He was convicted at his second trial on February 23, 1996.

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