Klansman Trial Defendants Protest Hot Prison Truck Transport to Court

Twenty-five defendants on trial as alleged members of the so-called Tesha Miller faction of the Klansman gang raised concerns Tuesday about the conditions under which they were taken to the Home Circuit Court in downtown Kingston.

The men complained that they were “being treated like cattle” after travelling in prison trucks which, according to them, had been left under the intense afternoon sun before the trip to court.

The matter is usually scheduled to start at 10:00 am each day. On Tuesday, however, administrative issues pushed the sitting to 2:00 pm, so the defendants were not moved early to the court’s holding area as they had been on previous days.

At the close of the day’s proceedings, defence attorney Denise Hinson brought the complaint before trial judge Justice Dale Palmer. She said, “Mr Miller [accused gang leader] in particular and the other accused men are aggrieved [as] they believe that they are being treated as cattle.”

Hinson told the court that the vehicle used to take the men from prison had been exposed to the heat before it collected them. “The truck [which transports them from the prisons] had been sitting outside in the heat. It’s all metal, even inside — it’s really like a cage with very little ventilation. It sat outside in the heat and came for them in the height of the afternoon sun… they said the heat inside the truck, though it was a short distance, was absolutely unbearable,” she said.

According to the attorney, the defendants asked that the court be made aware of the situation so that, if another afternoon start becomes necessary, arrangements could still be made for them to be brought in earlier.

Justice Palmer acknowledged the concern before adjourning the case. “It is indeed noted, counsel, and I trust and ask, to the extent that it can be accommodated, it is perhaps better… that they can be brought earlier at a time when it will result in the least discomfort,” he said.

The complaint followed calls from two defence attorneys, carried in the Jamaica Observer’s Tuesday, May 26 edition, for serious prison reform. Those calls included the need for a fit-for-purpose correctional facility for inmates and proper detention facilities.