Guilty, guilty, guilty.\u00a0 This was the verdict for Prince Hepburn after the 12-member jury convicted him for the murder of Nelly Mae Brown-Cox, which occurred in 2011.\u00a0 The ghastly details of this case still linger in the hearts and minds of many Bahamians who read the stories of this brutal attack and who heard witness testimony as the trial resumed.<\/p>\n
The evidence suggested that some of her fingers were chopped off and that she was hacked to death with a cutlass.\u00a0 It seems as if when Hepburn killed Brown-Cox, his desire was for overkill.\u00a0 He wanted to make a statement to her and indeed the country.\u00a0 He absolutely did.<\/p>\n
The gruesome murder of Brown-Cox is in some ways similar to the murder case involving Maxo Tido.\u00a0 We remember how Tido burned the body of a teenage girl and bludgeoned her head.\u00a0 This case sparked much debate because of the heinous nature of the crime.\u00a0 Tido was also found guilty of murder.\u00a0 He was the first person convicted of murder after the Privy Council made a landmark decision in 2006 outlawing automatic death sentences for murder in The Bahamas.\u00a0 The Privy Council made another landmark decision by overturning his death sentence because it said that this was not \u201cthe worst of the worst\u201d.\u00a0 He eventually received over 50 years for his crime.\u00a0 In this instance I believe the attorney general\u2019s (AG\u2019s) office fulfilled its mandate, but the highest court of the land had the final say.<\/p>\n
Now the AG\u2019s office has said that it will not seek the death penalty for Hepburn, who seemed to surpass the grisly nature of the act of murder as compared to Maxo Tido.\u00a0 Hepburn appeared to have acted in premeditation because his weapon of choice was engraved with custom markings.\u00a0 He could not fathom his girlfriend sleeping with another man and being unfaithful to him.\u00a0 Hepburn\u2019s crime seems to be in the category of the worst of the worst.<\/p>\n
I am not a big fan of the Privy Council\u2019s rulings as it relates to overturning death sentences, but I do appreciate the fact that it has the last say when it comes to appeals in The Bahamas.\u00a0 This is the law of the land and the law must prevail.\u00a0 But for the AG\u2019s office, in my view, to not fully represent the people and not seek the death penalty for Hepburn is inexplicable.\u00a0 What precedent are we setting for the victims of these crimes?\u00a0 Does the AG\u2019s office believe it to be a waste of time to seek the death penalty because of the past rulings of the Privy Council?<\/p>\n
On what basis did the AG\u2019s office decide not to seek the death penalty in this case?\u00a0 The lead prosecutor declined to be interviewed after the verdict was read.\u00a0 This is unacceptable and I contend very provocative.\u00a0 Yes, the people\u2019s representative did not even address the media.\u00a0 He should have given an explanation for this decision so at the very least it could be scrutinized by the public or set a date when this will happen.<\/p>\n
The AG\u2019s office must fully carry out its mandate and that is to serve at the behest of the people of The Bahamas.\u00a0 There has to be more accountability from this office and any shades of gray should be eliminated.<\/p>\n
By: Dehavilland Moss<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The AG\u2019s office must fully carry out its mandate and that is to serve at the behest of the people of The Bahamas. There has to be more accountability from this office and any shades of gray should be eliminated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[93,32,31,226],"class_list":["post-33880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinions","tag-corruption","tag-courts","tag-crime","tag-murder"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33880\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}