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….requests of DPP to review manslaughter charge
Attorney-at-Law Nigel Hughes, in making a case for Police Officer Sherwin Peters to be charged for murder and not manslaughter, said the evidence suggests that it was Peters intention to kill or cause Orin Boston Jr. bodily harm when he discharged his gun.
“We are instructed that no circumstances exist which indicate that Mr. Peters did not intend to kill or cause Mr. Boston grievous bodily injury when he discharged the AR which was in his possession and if he did not possess this intent, it is a matter for a jury to determine,” Hughes said a letter to the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Shalimar Ali-Hack, S.C.
In the letter seen by Village Voice News, Hughes, on behalf of Boston’s family, told the DPP that the witnesses’ statements on the death of Boston have confirmed it was an act of murder.
“We are further instructed that upon a review of the Standard Operating Procedures for the use of deadly force by members of the Guyana Police Force do not disclose any circumstance which justified the discharge of any deadly weapon when they entered the premises of Mr. Orin Boston,” Hughes further stated.
He pointed out too that the instructions issued to the SWAT team on the day of Boston’s death did not include any instructions to attend the premises of the now dead businessman or to seek his arrest. The Attorney told the DPP that additional evidence indicate Boston was specifically targeted in the exercise conducted on the morning of his death.
“The issue of weight and credibility of the statements of various witnesses is a matter which is in the exclusive purview of a jury,” he added. Against that background, Hughes said he is unaware of any legal basis upon which a charge of manslaughter could have been properly instituted against Peters. “In the premises we write to request your review of the file with a view to instituting a charge of murder against Sherwin Peters.In the event of your failure to so do our instructions are to commence proceedings to compel you to so do,” he told the DPP.
Boston was killed on September 15, 2021 while he slept alongside his wife in his Dartmouth, Essequibo home. Peters’ manslaughter charge erupted protest actions earlier this week with residents demanding that he be charged for murder.
