DPP goes after Marcus Bisram again; files full court appeal

Marcus Bisram walking out the Camp Street Jail a free man on June 02, 2020

The Director of Public Prosecution has again gone after Marcus Bisram as she seeks to ensure that he is tried, committed, and convicted for the murder of Faiyaz Narinedatt who died back in 2016.

On Monday the DPP filed a full-court appeal against the ruling of High Court Judge Simone- Morris Ramlal who last week ordered that Bisram be freed having reviewed and heard arguments from both the state and the defense lawyers for the accused. A full court appeal is where two judges are expected to review the decision made by a single judge.

In her ruling which handed down last week, (See full ruling of Judge here) the High Court Judge Ramlall noted that while the Director of Public Prosecution indeed has the power under section 72 of the Criminal Procedure Act to instruct a magistrate to commit an accused, there is a procedure which ought to be followed before that power to invoke section 72 is invoked.

Justice Ramlal in her ruling noted that the DPP failed to comply with the process and in that regard, the order to re-arrest and commit Bisram was illegal.

Another part of the ruling from the High Court Judge last week noted that the state through its prosecutor Stacy Goodings could not supply enough evidence in law or fact to the High Court as to why the Magistrate was wrong in her decision to rule back in Mach 30 2020 that there was not enough evidence to charge Marcus thus dismissing the case against him.

Marcus Bisram during one his appearance at the Magistrate Court earlier this year

It was against those backdrops that the High Court Judge handed down a ruling that supported the decision of the Magistrate that there was not sufficient evidence to cause Bisram to be committed to stand trial.

Marcus Bisram’s case comes over as very significant in the eyes of the public as it is the first extradition case that Guyana has sought. Lawyers for Bisram including Dexter Todd has been arguing that the DPP and by extension, the state has embarrassed the country by going after Bisram knowing that there was no evidence to successfully prosecute him.

BIG Smith News Watch contacted Attorney at Law Dexter Todd today to get from him if he feels that the state will continue going after Bisram because it might be a case where the evidence against Bisram was actually there.

“Marcus Bisram lost his fight in the United States was because the state’s prosecutor Stacy Goodings swore to an affidavit sent to the US that there was evidence in relation to the main witness who claimed that he overheard Bisram saying certain things,” Todd told this publication.

He said the US court held the view that because it was a criminal offense arising in another state did not have jurisdiction to hear evidence and to determine if the evidence is creditable or not and it was on that basis that Bisram was ordered to go before a court which has competent jurisdiction to hear the matter, in this case, Guyana.

“When Marcus Bisram arrived in Guyana, from that point onwards, the state has failed to produce the evidence that they told the United States that they had against Marcus Bisram and one must wonder whether the state prosecutor made a misrepresentation to the United States in order to secure the extradition of Marcus Bisram” Lawyer Dexter Todd told BIG Smith News Watch.

He is adamant that the state has been failing to produce a case in law or evidence against his client and one really has to wonder on what grounds was Marcus Bisram really extradited to Guyana.