A prisoner at Her Majesty’s Prison seeking to be exonerated of a murder conviction and 50-year-sentence had his appeal dismissed by the Court of Appeal.
Mark Anthony Capron’s arguments that Supreme Court judge, Justice Vera Watkins, did not deal with the discrepancies in the case extensively did not persuade Justices Stanley John, Abdulai Conteh and Neville Adderley.
According to the evidence, Simms Ferguson was shot in the face and the chest with a shotgun following a scuffle with Capron while in Johnson Alley off Wulff Road on March 6, 2011.
Ferguson died of his injuries three weeks after the shooting.
Capron was originally convicted of the murder in October 2002 and was sentenced to death. At that time, persons convicted of murder were automatically sentenced to death under Bahamian law.
However, the death sentence was overturned when Capron appealed to the Privy Council, who ordered a retrial in the matter.
Following a six-days retrial, Capron was again convicted of Ferguson’s murder on January 27, 2010. Justice Watkins sentenced him to 50 years’ imprisonment in February 2011.
Capron and his attorney, Murrio Ducille, appealed the conviction and sentencing to the appellate court on a number of grounds, including that the judge did not deal extensively with the discrepancies in the case and that the sentence was harsh.
The appeal was dismissed and the conviction and sentence affirmed.
