Every citizen of Trinidad and Tobago has benefited from the work of Akili Charles, the former murder accused whose constitutional claim against the State resulted in a historic ruling that those accused of murder can now apply for bail.
This is according to prison reform advocate Debbie Jacob, who taught Charles during his time in prison. Jacob is also a published author and Express Individual of the Year 2019.
Charles was ambushed and killed outside his Covigne Road, Diego Martin, home on July 30.
Jacob said Charles’ work put a spotlight on the shortcomings of the justice system, and showed how easy it is for someone to be arrested in T&T and spend years in prison awaiting trial for a crime they did not commit.
“People would ask me if I’m not afraid to go into prison. I’m not afraid of them. What I’m afraid of most in this country is how easy it is to get arrested. That scares me,” Jacob said in an interview with the Express last week.
She said it could happen to anyone, and Charles spoke up so that others would have a better chance at justice.
“Speaking up in court, that brought attention to the long delays in trials and judges postponing cases. I don’t know that we’ve done much about it, but it really brought that to the forefront.
“And it is a very, very crucial part of justice in this country and to stand up for that, it is a big part of his legacy. The work that he was doing legally in this country was vitally important for all of us, each and every person.”
Jacob, however, said Charles’ aim was not for killers to be set free.
“He was not a person that hoped to get bail for every murderer and get them out. That wasn’t what he was hoping for. He was hoping for better justice and more accountability from the police. What he had hoped was that this would make police more accountable for the way that they arrest people.
“You can get arrested just by somebody calling your name. It could be the wrong name being called, but you could be arrested and spend ten, 11, 12 years waiting for your case to come up. Akili’s work really helped all of us, in case we ever face that, to have a better chance at justice,” she said.
Excellent student
Jacob said despite the injustice Charles faced, he was never resentful or bitter, and was determined to make the best of his time behind bars.
“He was a person who had an unbelievable presence about him. In prison, the guys are loud and boisterous and they think they have to be louder than the next person to have themselves heard. Akili was always quiet. He rarely spoke, but he listened to everybody.
“He was an excellent student, he never missed class. Guys get really depressed inside of there waiting for their cases. His mood was always very even-keeled. He was never overly emotional. Just a very gentle person in a very rough, angry, depressing place.
“He was never resentful. He never spoke of any resentment for the years spent in prison. He made use of every class and programme available—furniture-making class, any programme he could do. He said prison was not nice but it’s not anything to forget, and he wanted to use that experience to help everyone in this country to have a better sense of justice in case they are arrested,” she said.
Jacob said Charles had planned to relocate to Dominica before the Covid-19 pandemic hit, as he had a job lined up there. She said they were discussing this on the Thursday before he was killed. It was the last conversation they had before she received a call informing her that he had been murdered. She said they spoke often, and he had never expressed any fear that he would be targeted.
“I was shocked. I cried for days and days. I knew the important work he was doing,” she said.
“I truly believed he was innocent. There are a lot of people in prison who are innocent, and we should not doubt that, because we see it all the time in foreign courts and in the United States, how many people are proven innocent all the time. And it’s the way that people are arrested here. A lot of hearsay evidence. A lot of people who would call somebody’s name and police arrest the person, and they sit inside a prison ten, 11 years before their case comes up to be heard.”
Akili’s legacy
Jacob said Charles’ legacy, apart from the constitutional change to bail, is the way he humanised inmates and highlighted that there are innocent people behind bars.
“There is a comfort in feeling like if a person is in prison, it’s because they are guilty,” she said.
“But look at the success rate for police solving crimes in this country. It’s very, very low, so I don’t know what gives people the idea that everybody in prison is there because they are guilty. That’s not to say everybody in prison is innocent either, but it certainly is a mess. The justice system is a mess.
“I have worked in the Port of Spain prison and the rest of the prison system. I started about 12 years ago, and with the exception of the teenagers that I taught in YTC (Youth Training Centre), I have not had a single inmate in adult prison who I have taught who was not either found not guilty or the case was thrown out. Not a single one. So we had better believe there are a lot of innocent people in prison, and this is why this Bail Act was so important to him.
“Everybody in prison is aware of Akili and what he has done. He has really put a face on inmates being individuals, being people, much more than a stigma. Everybody in prison is very thankful to Akili for putting the knowledge out there of something we forget, which is by law you’re innocent until proven guilty.
“I hope that a big part of his legacy is for all of us to understand that there are good people in prison. People who are some of the most admirable people I’ve ever met in this country who are in prison. Some of them were involved in things they should not have been involved in, and they’ve worked really hard to turn their lives around. Some of them are in there unjustly.”
Jacob said Charles’ death is a tremendous loss, but his contributions will live on.
“His life stood for so much, it stood for hope, it stood for justice, it stood for social acceptance, and that is going to far outweigh and outlive his death. Death cannot silence the contributions he made.”
About Akili Charles
Charles was arrested along with four other men and charged with the murder of Russell Antoine in 2010.
He was part of a group of prisoners who in 2017 staged a near riot at the Port of Spain Magistrates’ Court after being informed by Chief Magistrate Maria Busby Earle-Caddle that their matters would have to start afresh after the elevation of former chief magistrate Marcia Ayers-Caesar to the High Court Bench.
Charles was freed in 2019 after Busby Earle-Caddle upheld a no-case submission by his attorneys that the State did not provide sufficient evidence during the course of the preliminary enquiry for Charles to face trial at the High Court.
Following his release from prison, Charles brought a constitutional claim against the State, arguing it was unlawful for those accused of murder to automatically be denied bail.
While his claim was dismissed at the High Court, a three-judge Appeal Court panel comprising Chief Justice Ivor Archie, along with Justices of Appeal Mira Dean-Armorer and Malcolm Holdip, overturned the High Court ruling.
The Justices agreed with Charles’ arguments that Section 5(1) of the Bail Act was unconstitutional and should therefore be struck out.
The Office of the Attorney General appealed the ruling at the Privy Council, and on June 28, five law lords at the apex court upheld the Appeal Court’s ruling, making it law for anyone charged with murder to be free to apply to the court for bail.
