ANTIGUA: PRISONER FREED ON MURDER CHARGE

The former murder convict was facing a life sentence in prison, until yesterday morning when the Court of Appeal overturned the sentence due to “trial judge errors” among other things.

Bunche, 41, had been sentenced in January 2011 for the 2007 killing of his good friend Jerry Manderville. The newly freed man told OBSERVER media the ordeal was “a hard task” but he remained prayerful.

This was not the first time Bunche has been to prison. In 2004 he was released after serving 10 year in jail on a manslaughter conviction in a different case.

Speaking of this second stint, he said, “Me dun know dat me innocent and that one day God would help me. Me dun know the system t’ink me do subb’n that me nuh do,” he said. “I just never know it would be so long, for eight years of my life.”

Bunche, whose relatives broke down in tears at the court when the ruling was handed down, said the first thing he did when he got home was to hug his family.

“It feels good to be around my family,” he said.

“Eight years of his life have been taken from him; eight whole years. Do you know what he could have done in eight years? He could have started a family. My brother is 41 and he doesn’t even have a child,” Bunche’s sister, Ashi O’Brien told OBSERVER media.

Bunche’s lawyer, Jason Martin, said his client remained in good spirits during the ordeal.

“(I’m) very happy for him because this has just been terrible luck. It is good to see that finally the justice system has worked out for him. He has had an amazing temperament through all this. It’s been a pleasure assisting him with this.

Martin added that Bunche’s sister has been her brother’s staunch supporter. She said she is happy that her brother has been freed because she always knew he was an innocent man.

“I don’t even know what to say right now because I just wish that the investigators would take time out to investigate better than to just throw an innocent person in jail,” she said. “All the evidence was pointing in the other direction and yet still they convicted him.”