Suspected Jamaican killer fights deportation
O’Brian Ellis
(CNS): A Jamaican national who is currently being held on remand at HMP Northward, having been charged with illegal landing, is fighting deportation to his native country over fears he could be executed because he is a murder suspect there. The Jamaican authorities believe O’Brian Ellis, from Westmoreland, murdered his brother, Steadman Sterling, last December and is on the country’s ‘most wanted’ list. Ellis had been living in Windsor Park for several months, having arrived in Cayman illegally, when he was picked up during a raid last month.
Ellis is challenging removal to his homeland on human rights grounds because, although it is nearly three decades since anyone was put to death by the state, Jamaica still has the death penalty for aggravated murder on its statute books. However, most prisoners who have been sentenced to hang over the last thirty years have appealed their death sentences to the Privy Council and all have been commuted, leaving only a handful of inmates on the country’s death row.
In an application for a judicial review filed by his attorneys this month, Ellis argued that his deportation to Jamaica would expose him to the death penalty because he believes the authorities there intend to charge him with aggravated murder, and that this would be in breach of the Constitution of the Cayman Islands, specifically the guarantees within the Bill of Rights and the right to life.
Section 24 of the BoR states that it is unlawful for a public official to make a decision or to act in a way that is incompatible with the Bill of Rights.
Ellis further argued that prison conditions in Jamaica are such that, even if he was not given the death penalty, life imprisonment would constitute a violation of the prohibition of torture and inhuman treatment.
He should be sent back….end of…..if he did the crime he needs to do the time…and we dont want the thug here thank you.
Darn Canadian accountants breaking the law again.
Jamaica does not offer the kinds of amenities that northward offers. Northward is an all inclusive resort , he would have to buss rock in jamaica.
my understanding is he wants to go back and clear his name! But some hungry lawyers want to make money! I guess that would be off the Government right did he get legal aid?
He is not an expat!! He is a suspected murder, who illegally landed on our shores and our tax $$ are paying his legal fees?? Excuse me??!!
His only crime in Cayman is alleged illegal landing. So, what if he is successful in his assertion that he could be executed if he’s returned to Jamaica or that life in prison is horrible? Does that mean he will be sentenced as an illegal immigrant then released into our midst??!!
I wonder if Jamaica would honour human rights requirements and pay my lawyers if I killed someone here and took a canoe to Black River – then slap my hand for arriving illegally then let me stay and hang out in Jamaica?
The Courts should waste no more time nor our $$ to
Your example breaks down (as his will) when you try to show that you are, in essence, a refugee Black River because life in Cayman would be too inhumane if you were returned. If you could show that, e.g., Cuban asylum seekers, then yes you get to stay even if you have landed illegally. (And look how many that applies to.)
He does not have a leg to stand on.
I doubt we’ll have to worry about him staying here.
Trial should start with illegal entry sentence is deportation. Case closed. Done.
Of course he has the right to life however that right is in Jamaica. He washed up on our shore and we are not even bound to fee him. I don’t really understand these foolish excuses the learned people dressed in wigs and frocks can come up with.
no a proud moment to be JAMAICAN living in Cayman.
So what do you say when our own people commit crimes?
This man and his crimes and being Jamaican has not a blessed thing to do with all the others that live here, Work honestly and integrate more than half of the other nationalities that exist and live in their isolated pockets!
Jamaicans should still be proud to live here as Jamaicans. This country was built off their hard work too working amongst us!
Obviously you are a Jamaican. If you are a hard working law abiding Jamaican please do not take ownership of this criminal.
Why are we even wasting time on this guy ???
The nerves about human rights, whatever send him home now
He landed illegally. Oh right …Cayman is paradise not going back to Jam . Bet him gonna find a wife get Status And in time will
and probably get a job.
He have no rights in our country. He was here illegally and needs to go back home to face the music. XXXXX nuisance we don’t need him here!!!
simple..criminals are not welcome here as they are bad apple which it can breed more criminals…sent him back as it is his fault to be on wrong side of the law.
It would set a bad precedent if he is not deported. Then word would be out and other criminals would come here illegally (not hard to do) and claim asylum.
If The legal system did not drag their feet on this illegal, he would have been shipped way before he had time to think this up!!
It’s not going to work. You see, he is presumed innocent until guilty. So just because he has a fear of the death penalty. Doesn’t mean he will get the death penalty. Since he has not been tried in a Jamaican court yet. Therefore. No judge can grant him that amnesty based on an assumption of guilty without the court saying he’s guilty.
Bye bye bobo.
Cayman could insert a condition of return that he will not get the death penalty.
thats not our call to make. if the Jamaica courts sentence him as such then thats what happens to him. not our problem
Actually, that is a well established way of dealing with these cases. As you say, if they then break the deal, not our problem, but if they make the deal, the HR objection falls away.
Let us uncomplicate this.
Let’s sssume this guy is innocent to start with, what is he still doing here trying to fight an illegal entry into a country?
Probably working …..where did he live who fed him . It should be a crime to harbor him
“Ah kno’ well!!”
– Whodatis
Don’t set a precedence! You will open the flood gates. Send him home ASAP!
If we can’t even provision basic drinking water, food, or fuel to handmade rafts filled with pregnant women and infant Cuban refugees, I doubt the tactic of humanitarian grounds will carry much weight with a wanted murderer fugitive. As a society, we are routinely complicit when it comes to shooing voyagers on to uncertain fates – even those “safely” returned by plane.
Firstly, not judging him to be guilty.
But, please don’t let this become a precedent otherwise we may become a haven for Jamaican murders seeking a safe harbour.
He the criminal is just plainly saying and trying to demand that he stays in paradise because Ja is too bad for him . Send the illegal criminal back to his place of berth he deserves no better.
You just read my mind…deport him, it is costing us money.
To be legally honest about his illegally situation in the Cayman Islands , I think that the government is not responsible to do anything for a scumbag Illegal criminal who came into the Islands without Government /Immigration permission or knowledge . Except deport him to never return . But I think that the people of Cayman Islands need to demand that he be sent back home because Cayman don’t ned one more criminal.
1:01pm we have too many imported criminals roaming around these islands. Send them back, we don’t need those scumbags here.
Most of them have found some fool to “marry” them. They ain’t going nowhere!
Very true.
So please advise this, how does our laws protect an expat? Aren’t our laws for Caymanians and those who commit crimes here, he landed ILLEGALLY, why or how does our law protect him?
He’s not even an “expat”. He landed illegally (not sure if illegal alien) is the term used here but I highly doubt “expat” is fitting, given the many good expats we have here.
Too many of that same kind here and in positions to assist them. Drain all the swamps.
It’s called Human Rights. You wouldn’t understand or even try to until yours are violated.
send his ass back fawk you mean wanna be gangster scared now
Once again, it is Written concerning on how to deal with a murderer. God declared to Noah and his generations:
“Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood BE SHED: for in the image of God made he man” ~ Genesis 9:6
Despite clear proof of murder and evil intent, our governments encourage this kind of injustice and waste of tax payers monies. We end up reaping the consequences …
IF this man is really guilty of cold blooded murder and did the act with intentions of murder (unless for self-defence), and he is really the culprit, why are we making him live and mock our systems of justice ???
Why ?! ?
Unison, you have valid arguments, but please just lay off the god arguments to back it up.
12:38pm. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. How about that?
Sorry Unison, the Bible isn’t the standard of which we base our laws and morality here, at least for those of us who aren’t superstitious or delusional that is. You missed that train by about a two millenniums.
Although the Bible is not a perfect book, it had huge influenced in the development of western law, shared morals, and cultures. The legal codes in the Torah help shaped common and civil laws even in our British system. Why?
Because what was in the book, made “alot of sense” to court systems from days of old. Even the language of British has its biblical roots
wrong bredda man…..our laws certainly are based on the Laws of the Bible. try read the Bible sometime!
We need a Donald Trump to sort this mess out!
If that’s what you believe you need a frontal lobotomy
Ridiculous
Send him home & all the crimals who are not from here, we have our home criminals to deal with!!
Send him home. No good will come out of him staying here. He allegedly did the crime than face the consequences.
He should go back to Jamaica and protest to try and make the jail conditions there better for the other inmates. He’s wasting his time here protesting about it…
What does he know about how prisoners are treated here? Go back to Jamaica and let them roast his axe. Why should we care or cause him to reap up costs for us to pay.
Maybe he should have taken some of these things into consideration before killing his brother. I don’t see anything in the article where he is claiming he is innocent and is being wrongfully accused. The argument seems to be he doesn’t want to face the music for his crimes in his home country. Send him back to Jamaica. It’s not our problem and our jail is already at capacity.
Who is paying for his lawyer to clog up the court system with this nonsense? Hopefully not the people of the Cayman Islands.
I am certain he will not be given the death penalty. That is a poor attempt at trying to avoid the consequences of his actions. I am Jamaican and there are countless men (and women) in prison there for the same crime (some more heinous) and they weren’t given the death penalty.
To be honest many Jamaicans are asking for them to bring back the death penalty as deterrence for these criminals. Send him home!! If he wasn’t guilty he wouldn’t have fled the country. They are offering BIG discounts for guilty pleas, so I suggest he takes advantage of it, man up and do his time.
If you open the gate for this one, many more will flee here and use this same excuse!
Whatttt???? So let him in and give him residency and status? What are the options for an illegal landing if not to send them straight back?
LOL This;
“Ellis further argued that prison conditions in Jamaica are such that, even if he was not given the death penalty, life imprisonment would constitute a violation of the prohibition of torture and inhuman treatment.”
But your brother is still dead.
Why are we as a country even entertaining this criminal? First he is here illegally and secondly he is wanted for murder, send him back to his country and let him face the consequences.
This is the height of foolishness! does he have Cayman Papers? Was he here even legally!.. Send him back to his country! If he was from Cayman i would understand but he just want the better treatment up in our small prison!..
If this Govt. don’t send him back to Jamaica, then we will riot. they must send him back, we don’t want more people like him here period.
Bobo, how is that our problem?