BY KARISSMA ROBINSON
A man convicted of a near decade old murder was sentenced to 50 years imprisonment by Supreme Court Justice Vera Watkins yesterday.
Mark Anthony Capron’s sentence is to take effect as of January 27, 2010 the date of his conviction. According to evidence at the trial, Capron had shot Ferguson on the morning of March 6, 2001 in John’s Alley off Wulff Road in broad daylight. Capron was initially convicted on October 17, 2002 of murdering Andrew Simms Ferguson and was given what was at the time a mandatory death sentence. In 2006, Capron appeared before the Privy Council, which ruled at the time that "the direction of the jury and the subsequent exchange with counsel were unfairly prejudicial to the appellant because they undermined the alibi, which was the central issue raised." It was also noted that the Prosecution’s case rested solely on the testimony of two eyewitnesses, who Capron said in his unsworn statement were lying. Capron instead contended that he was on his uncle’s porch on Wulff Road, which he said was some distance from where the murder took place. The matter was then sent to the Court of Appeal, which ordered a retrial. Last year, following a retrial, Capron was again convicted of Ferguson’s murder. His attorney Murrio Ducille argued that Capron has a right to life and that that right is not rebutted by his conviction for murder. He said that the facts did not disclose that it was an exceptional and extreme case of murder that warranted the death penalty. Mr. Ducille said that the death penalty should only be contemplated when there is no hope for reform and that there is nothing to suggest that Capron cannot be reformed. The attorney said he intends on appealing the sentence.
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