In July, Justice Alvin Shiva Pariagsingh ordered the State to pay Frances Daniel $75,000 in constitutional and vindicatory damages, after a five-month court process.
For the Daniel family, the judgment feels “bittersweet”, but they see it as “a step in the right direction” in their ongoing 13-year fight for answers and accountability over the killing of Frances’ son, Chacadan Daniel.
In October 2013, it became public that Chacadan had been found unconscious after being held at the Micoud Police Station. A coroner’s inquest on July 24, 2015, ruled his death an unlawful killing. Since then, questions have lingered about what happened at the station, with the investigation hampered by unusual circumstances, including evidence that disappeared and later reappeared.
Against this backdrop, the Civil Division proceedings in the High Court between Frances and the Attorney General (the State) concluded on July 29. The ordered payment came after the court cited the State’s “prolonged failure to complete a prompt, effective and reasonably transparent investigation” into Chacadan’s death.
The State was also ordered to complete the investigation into Chacadan’s death within six months. Failure to meet that deadline would require a report detailing what has been done, the reasons for any delay and the anticipated timeframe for completion.
Now, a month later, Chacadan’s family is speaking out again in a statement sent to St. Lucia Times.
“… Chacadan was not afforded the protection of the law as enshrined in the Constitution. There is no dispute that the State failed to uphold his constitutional rights, and that of his mother,” the statement reads in light of Chacadan’s death being deemed an unlawful killing and the recent judgment over the prolonged investigation.
The family also raised concerns about how the State handled the case. Court documents show that Frances took the State to court partly because of the negative impact the ordeal had on her health and wellbeing. The family was disappointed with the State’s response. During the State’s defence, it was said that there was “no specialist psychiatric evidence” and that [Frances] did not attend the recommended specialist evaluation – a proposition the family says does not align with Frances’ Rastafari faith.
They have again called for change in Saint Lucia’s justice system.
“…the blatant disregard of the law in the killing of Chacadan, and the lack of accountability and transparency on the part of those who are entrusted to uphold the law is unprecedented in Saint Lucia,” said the statement, pointing to what they believe are wider issues in Saint Lucia and to what the court has deemed a failure to complete a “reasonably transparent investigation”.
The family say they are pushing for a review of Saint Lucia’s judicial policies, statutes and procedures.
Read the full statement below.
