CORONER for the Corporate Area, Resident Magistrate Patrick Murphy, last Friday handed down a landmark ruling when he ordered the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) to release the findings of an army investigation which ended with three soldiers being dismissed in connection with a fatal shooting incident in 2001.

The ruling came after Shawn Wilkinson, an attorney representing the relatives of Maurice Allen who was killed by the security forces under questionable circumstances in the Mountain View area of Kingston, contended that the findings were crucial to proving that members of the security forces had unjustly shot Allen.

However, the JDF and the attorney general argued that the investigation was for internal purposes only, and argued that releasing sensitive information could compromise the army’s operational procedures.

Allen was shot dead when a joint police/military patrol, involving the now defunct Crime Management Unit (CMU), engaged a carload of citizens in a high speed car chase which ended when the vehicle crashed.

Allen reportedly alighted from the vehicle and fled onto a premises in the community.

Police say they were fired on and returned the fire killing Allen. But people who claimed to have witnessed the shooting refuted the police’s claim, saying Allen was shot, chased and cornered by police and soldiers, who were ordered by a high-ranking police officer to ‘finish him (Allen) off’.

Last Friday, RM Murphy first ordered the JDF to hand over the findings to him so that he could peruse them and decide if they were crucial to the ongoing coroner’s inquest into Allen’s death. After reading the files, RM Murphy then ruled that they should be admitted into evidence.

However, the JDF’s legal team requested a 21-day period before the documents are handed over. It was unclear whether or not the JDF planned to appeal the ruling in a higher court.

So far, JDF Chief of Staff, Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin and the army’s legal officer, Major Patrick Cole, have been called to give evidence in the matter. In a sworn statement from the dock last week, Lewin explained that the soldiers were duty bound to answer questions at an inquiry without being cautioned and without legal representation.

“If this soldier were civilian he could say nothing. That is his right. Here is a case where an individual was not cautioned or had the option of being represented,” Lewin said.

Resident magistrate Murphy also questioned Lewin about the army’s refusal to release the findings of the inquiry, if it could assist the state in solving a murder.

“The JDF might have in its possession a statement from more than one soldier that might allege murder or manslaughter. Are you telling the court that the JDF would not hand over these statements to the police?” RM Murphy asked. “Is it not the duty to hand over these statements to the police rather than hold on to them for operational purposes?”

The inquest will continue on October 27, a day after the deadline for documents to be handed over or for the JDF to lodge an appeal.