CCJ to hear appeal from Barbadian man who claims his jail sentences “excessive”

Seven years after he was convicted and sentenced to six consecutive terms of life imprisonment, a 29-year-old man is appealing to the Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) on the “excessive” nature of the sentence.

Renaldo Alleyne was sentenced in June 2011 on manslaughter charges less than a year after he was held responsible for the September 3, 2010 fire at a store in the capital resulting in the deaths of six young women.

The women reportedly died after Alleyne firebombed the store during a robbery attempt.

A second young man, Jamar Dwayne Bynoe, 27, who was charged in connection with the same tragedy was sentenced to hang on July 1, 2016 after being found guilty of six counts of murder.

Alleyne had argued before the Court of Appeal that the life sentences imposed on him were excessive and that the request trial judge did not consider a “discount” for his early guilty plea.

But in dismissing his appeal, the Court of Appeal held that his sentences were neither excessive, disproportionate or wrong in principle, given the gravity of the offence, and that the issue of a discount does not apply to an indeterminate sentence.

Alleyne will now go before the CCJ, which is the island’s highest court, on December 5.