THE as yet unanswered question was why would Donald Parkes stab Daphne Graham to death on the early morning of September 15, 1971.

Parkes, a 24-year-old casual worker formerly residing at 10 Bowens Road, St Andrew, denied the dastardly deed.

But the Number One Home Circuit Court jury, after hearing evidence mainly from the mother of the murdered woman, returned a unanimous verdict of guilty of murder, and Chief Justice Kenneth George Smith (now deceased) sentenced him to death by hanging. Prosecutor was Crown Counsel Velma Hylton, later QC, deputy director of public prosecution.

When asked if he had anything to say before sentence was passed on him, Parkes who was defended by attorney George McCalla (now deceased), told the court: “I am not guilty. I would like to see a probation officer, sir.”

“Not in this type of case,” the chief justice responded.

At the trial in January 1974, Minna Graham, the mother of the deceased, told the court that her daughter had occupied a separate room at 10 Bowens Road in September 1971. She (Graham) was the owner of those premises and occupied a separate house there. Parkes also lived on those premises with his aunt.

About 7:30 on the morning of September 15, Minna Graham said, she left the premises. The accused was standing on the verandah of the room occupied by her daughter and he had both hands behind his back. Daphne was standing at her door.

While on the road sometime after, Minna Graham said somebody came and told her something. She returned to the premises, went inside her daughter’s room and saw her holding her left breast. Her daughter was standing but then she fell to the floor. Dorothy Lyn, a tenant in the yard, was in the room at the time. Lyn had since removed from the premises.

Minna Graham said her daughter spoke to her, after which she went to the back of the yard where she saw the accused with a closed ratchet knife in his hand. She asked him twice: “What she do why you stab her?”

Parkes made no reply.

She boxed him twice and held him by the waist of his trousers. Parkes opened the knife and tried cutting her in the face. At that point, she testified further, she had noticed that the knife had blood on its blade. She raised her left hand to defend herself and she received a cut on her little finger, necessitating five stitches.

She continued to hold the accused and his uncle-in-law, Ralston Jarrett, subsequently arrived. He asked Parkes to hand over the knife to him and he did so. The knife was subsequently handed over to the police by Jarrett, according to Minna Graham.

Upon cross-examination, it was suggested to the witness that in the process of holding the accused she got cut on her hand, but she said he deliberately cut her with the knife.

Dr Eric DePass, pathologist at the government laboratory, testified that he performed a post-mortem examination on the body of Daphne Graham on September 22, 1971. Death was due, in his opinion, to shock and haemorrhage associated with cardiac tamponade. A mild to moderate degree of force could have caused wound number one, the doctor told the court. The knife shown in court could have caused

the wounds.

Asked in cross-examination if the wounds could have been self-inflicted, the doctor said he did not think the wound to the left posterior auxiliary line could have been self-inflicted, but admitted it was a possibility.

Det Sgt Milton Pusey (now deceased) of the Elletson Road Police Station but formerly stationed at Hunts Bay Police Station told of arresting Parkes on September 29, 1971 on

a warrant.

In an unsworn statement from the dock, Parkes denied stabbing Daphne Graham. He said when Minna Graham asked him on the day of the incident what her daughter had done him, why he stabbed her, he did not reply because he did not know what she was talking about. He said Minna Graham did not receive the cut as she described but that she had searched him and taken away a knife from him.

He said she opened it and said she was going to stab him in return because he had stabbed her daughter. He boxed the knife out of her hand and took it up. She grabbed at the knife and it

cut her.

On Monday, January 21, 1974 the mixed jury retired for one hour and 12 minutes and returned with a verdict of guilty of murder. Parkes’ application for leave to appeal against the conviction, filed through his counsel, was dismissed by the Jamaica Court of Appeal in July 1974. He was granted special leave to appeal against his conviction by the Judicial Committee of the United Kingdom Privy Council on October 30, 1975.

In a four-page judgement delivered on July 20, 1976, the Privy Council dismissed Parkes’s appeal and in emulating the Jamaica Court of Appeal in their brevity, with respect to the latter two submissions, held inter alia:

“Now the whole admissibility of statements of this kind rests upon the consideration that if a charge is made against a person in that person’s presence, it is reasonable to expect that he or she will immediately deny it and that the absence of such a denial is some evidence of an admission on the part of the person charged, and of the truth of the charge. Undoubtedly, when persons are speaking on even terms, and a charge is made, and the person charged says nothing, and expresses no indignation, and does nothing to repel the charge, that is some evidence to show that he admits the charge to be true…

“Here, Mrs Graham and the accused were speaking on even terms. Furthermore, as the chief justice pointed out to the jury, the accused’s reaction to the twice-repeated accusation was not one of mere silence. He drew a knife and attempted to stab Mrs Graham in order to escape when she threatened to detain him while the police were sent for.

“In their Lordship’s view, the chief justice was perfectly entitled to instruct the jury that the accused’s reactions to the accusations, including his silence, were matters which they could take into account along with other evidence in deciding whether the accused in fact committed the act with which he

was charged.

“For these reasons their Lordships have humbly advised Her Majesty that the appeal be dismissed.”

NEXT WEEK: Claudius Henry revisited

Sybil E Hibbert is a veteran journalist and retired court reporting specialist. She is also the wife of Retired ACP Isadore ‘Dick’ Hibbert, rated among the top Jamaican detectives of his time. Send comments to allend@jamaicaobserver.com