Andrew “Ratty” Milton and Dennis “Soupy” Campbell have spent years disputing their 2009 murder conviction, but on Oct. 12 the territory’s highest court dismissed their appeal.

The men were convicted in 2009 of conspiring to kill Mr. Milton’s sister, Keriann Ebanks, after she threatened to report them for working illegally on Tortola.

When they arrived at her apartment, only her roommate Dorcas Rhule was home, so the men killed her instead by choking her and throwing her off a balcony, prosecutors said during the trial.

The Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court of Appeal struck down the men’s first appeal in 2012, but Tim Maloney, one of the appellants’ attorneys, appeared before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in the United Kingdom on July 14, and argued that the ECSC erred in holding that the convictions were safe.

Mr. Maloney claimed that the one of the key witnesses, Shawna Kay Wilson, struggled with mental health issues, while another witness, Hubert McLeod, was an accomplice.

Both of their testimonies should therefore be considered questionable, the attorney claimed.

Mr. Maloney also claimed that the trial judge, Justice Indra Hariprashad-Charles, misdirected the jury on how to treat DNA evidence taken from a glove, which he said experts declared inconclusive.

Appeal dismissed

In a published judgment, the Privy Council agreed that the judge “should have made sure that the jury understood the limited nature of the evidence.”

However, the council still dismissed the appeal, explaining that the judge’s error had caused no miscarriage of justice, as there is an “overwhelming” amount of evidence against both men.

The council rejected the argument that the testimony of Ms. Wilson should be deemed questionable, stating that she had no reason to lie and only temporarily suffered from mental health issues due to trauma brought on by the convicts’ crime.

The council also argued that the testimony of Mr. McLeod should not be dismissed just because he was an accomplice, especially because it corroborated the evidence provided by Ms. Wilson.

Sentences

Messrs. Milton and Campbell were each previously sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder with eligibility for parole after 35 years. For conspiracy to murder, they each received a 10-year prison sentence to run concurrently with their life sentence.

Their appeal was argued before Lord Neuberger, Lord Mance, Lord Kerr, Lord Carnwath, and Lord Toulson.