(CMR) According to local media reports, Michael Fernandez Jefferson (25) is now a free man after the Court of Appeal quash his conviction for possession of an unlicensed firearm.
He spent a little over 12 months in prison but has now walked free.
Cayman News Service states that Jefferson, who was working as an auto-mechanic when he was found guilty of having the unlicensed gun, argued successfully that his conviction was not safe. The panel of judges did not detail the reasons for quashing the conviction, indicating that they would do so in writing, but implied that the decision largely rested on the judge’s decision to allow evidence to go before the jury that should not have been admitted.
While prosecutors argued for, and secured, the possibility of a retrial in the case, they failed to hold Jefferson on remand, and after allowing the appeal, the president of the appeal court, Sir John Goldring, told Jefferson he was free to go.
Jefferson was convicted in July last year after police executed a search warrant at his home and found a .38 automatic pistol under a bed wrapped in tissue in a ziplock bag, along with two live cartridges.
Read more here.
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