After spending 24 years - more than half his life - on remand for the murder of his own father, 45 year-old Leroy Arnold was sent home today - without even a trial. That's after the Supreme Court determined that the case file and all the evidence against him has gone missing, and will probably not be found.
According to police, on September 6, 1991, Leroy Arnold's father, William Arnold, was killed in the village of Teakettle, and they believed that they had evidence to prove that he was the killer, and so, he was charged with murder at the age of 19.
A few years later, his case came up for trial, but during that time, before a full jury, Arnold began showing signs of mental illness. The sitting judge concluded at that time that he was mentally unstable and unfit to stand trial.
He was left to languish in jail all that time, and when his case was called up this week, it was determined that he was now fit to stand trial. The prosecution then tried to locate his case file, but when the court requested it to start the trial, no one could find it.
As a result, Justice Adolph Lucas ruled that in interest of justice, it is best to discharge Arnold. So, he was set free and allowed to go home - after more than two decades of imprisonment.
Email
Print