The trial of three Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) soldiers who were charged with the March 2010 murder of businessman Keith Clarke is now set to begin on April 29.

Justice Dale Palmer issued the revised date on Monday after ruling against a request by the defence to have the matter stayed as it pursues an appeal.

The case has been in the courts since 2012 when the Director of Public Prosecutions ruled that the soldiers — lance corporals Greg Tingling and Odel Buckley as well as Private Arnold Henry —be charged with murder.

Clarke was allegedly shot 21 times by the soldiers on March 27, 2010 at his house on Kirkland Close in St Andrew during a police-military operation to apprehend then fugitive Christopher “Dudus” Coke.

The trial of the soldiers was set to begin in 2018; however, it was stalled after immunity certificates were presented by JDF lawyers which shielded them from prosecution for their actions during the operation.

The immunity certificates were signed in 2016 by former Minister of National Security Peter Bunting.

In February 2020, the Constitutional Review Court ruled that the certificates were unfair and unreasonable.

The Court of Appeal then ordered that before the trial begins, a voir dire, or a trial within a trial, must be
conducted to determine whether prosecutors can rebut the certificates of good faith issued by the minister.

That matter was finalised earlier this month when Justice Palmer handed down his ruling that the certificates cannot bar the trial from proceeding and that it should go on.