Wednesday, 29 June 2022 11:50

JFJ Opposes Death Penalty in Clarendon Massacre Case; Victims’ Family Calls For Justice

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Human rights lobby group, Jamaicans for Justice, is being taken to task for its decision to oppose the death penalty for the accused killer in the Cocoa Piece massacre.

The Director of Public Prosecutions, DPP, announced yesterday that she would seek the death penalty for Rushane Barnett who is charged with the murder of Kimesha Wright and her four children.

Executive Director of Jamaicans for Justice, Mickel Jackson, has opposed the decision. 

Barnett fled Clarendon following the incident and was apprehended the next day at this parents’ home in Trelawny.

He was reportedly also preparing to flee that parish.

Barnett reportedly confessed to the murders in a caution statement to the police.

Miss Wright’s brother in law, who asked to be called Campbell, says the murders were particularly gruesome as four of the victims were children.

Jackson argued that the State must seek rehabilitation rather than retribution.

But, the brother in law of the deceased is pushing back against JFJ’s suggestion.

Campbell says that until the horror of murder is experienced personally, persons do not appreciate its impact on families. 

Meanwhile, the relatives of the five victims of the Cocoa Piece massacre are welcoming the decision of the Director of Public Prosecution, Paula Llewellyn, to seek the death penalty for murder accused Rushane Barnett. 

That’s according to brother in law of the deceased mother.

Kimesha Wright and her four children were brutally murdered in their Clarendon home last Tuesday.

Miss Wright’s brother in law, who asked to be identified as Campbell, says the family feels what he describes as forceful satisfaction at the decision to seek the death penalty.