The Tribune

By LAMECH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

ljohnson@tribunemedia.net

AN extension of time application was filed to the Court of Appeal by a man who missed his 21-days-window to appeal his conviction and death sentence for the “contract killing” of a man in a Labour Board dispute with his employer.

The motion for extension of time, The Tribune understands, was filed on Thursday, November 7, a week after 21 calendar days available to 47-year-old Anthony Clarke Sr of Mount Pleasant Village to appeal his murder conviction and death sentence in the September 16, 2011, murder of Aleus Tilus. 

In a hearing date that has yet to be set by the appellate court, Clarke Sr would have to provide compelling arguments as to why that court should hear his appeal.

Clarke Sr was arraigned before then Chief Magistrate Roger Gomez in the magistrates’ court three weeks later in connection with the murder, and in June of this year, he stood trial before Senior Justice Isaacs.

The prosecution produced a confession statement in which Clarke purportedly owned up to the murder.

Clarke Sr allegedly told police that he was paid “a lot of money” by a man, who was not named, to kill Tilus because of an ongoing dispute before the Labour Board with Tilus’s employer.

The convict’s attorney, Shaka Serville, submitted that the statement was obtained through force and brutality against his client.

The jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict and the prosecutor Ambrose Armbrister indicated the Crown’s intention to seek the death penalty.

A probation report was presented in August which noted that Clarke Sr had shown no remorse for what he had done.

He maintained his innocence and his decision to appeal his conviction and inevitable sentence.

On October 10, the judge, having taken into account submissions from the prosecution and defence attorneys and the probation and psychiatric report, agreed to the Crown’s request to sentence Clarke Sr to death for Tilus’s murder.

Senior Justice Jon Isaacs further informed Clarke Sr of his right to challenge his conviction and punishment in the Court of Appeal.