Early release, thanks to CCJ

From the time he was sentenced to hang for murder in 2007, Jeffrey Gittens has been fighting for his life.

On Wednesday, he walked out of Dodds Prisons a free man, seven years earlier than the 2021 date of his revised punishment.

It has been a tortuous legal journey for the 41-year-old, one of the few people to have gone to the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) twice, the Court of Appeal twice and the Supreme Court twice.

His elated mother Marjorie Gittens, who stood by his side throughout, told the WEEKEND NATION that she knew her son would be set free.

“He was ‘unfaired’ in the first place,” she said. “From the time the court said that he was going to hang, I stood outside the courtroom and shout for everyone to hear, ‘No rope ain’t going around my son neck’.”

Jeffrey Gittens, who lived at Venture, St John, was charged with killing Lyndon Weekes on October 13, 2004. (MB)

Please read the full story in today’s WEEKEND NATION, or in the eNATION edition.