Monday, February 23, 2009
By LAMECH JOHNSON
Tribune Staff Reporter
ljohnson@tribunemedia.net
THE resentencing of murder convict Maxo Tido may finally proceed today when the former death row inmate reappears in the Supreme Court.
The end of this case comes nearly a year after his death sentence was overturned by the Privy Council.
His resentencing, presided over by Senior Justice Jon Isaacs, had been delayed on several occasions since last November.
Absent attorneys, missing documents, and the hiring of two new attorneys were the reasons for the delays up to today.
On Monday, Richard Bootle, appeared for Tido after the inmate had dismissed Roger Gomez II in court on February 28. Tido had not been satisfied with the representation he was receiving.
Mr Bootle had requested additional time to review trial transcripts and other information relating to the case.
Senior Justice Isaacs put the matter down for today.
Tido, who was sentenced to die in 2006, saw this decision overturned by the London-based Privy Council in June of 2011.
On March 20, 2006, a jury convicted Tido of murdering 16-year-old Donnell Conover in 2002. Her body was found off Cowpen Road battered and bruised, her skull crushed.
Evidence also revealed that parts of Ms Conover's body were burned after her death.
A month after his conviction, then Senior Justice Anita Allen (now Court of Appeal President) ruled that the crime committed by Tido warranted the death penalty.
The decision came days after the Privy Council ruled that the mandatory death sentence in place up until that point in the Bahamas was not constitutional.
In 2009, the Committee for the Prerogative of Mercy decided the law should take its course, as Tido's case was not one that warranted mercy.
However, Tido appealed to the Privy Council, the highest court of appeal for the Bahamas, which ruled that the killing of Conover did not warrant execution.
Log in to comment