The full court on Friday, July 29, 2022, struck out a 3-year sentence handed to a 21-year-old man at the Lethem Magistrate Court in November of last year.
Shem Winter, a 21-year-old barber of Tabatinga, Central Rupununi in Region Nine was sentenced to three years imprisonment and slapped with a $10,000 fine for the possession of 16 grams of marijuana by Magistrate Allan Wilson. His 29-year-old accomplice, Lester ‘Monkey’ George, was sentenced to three months of community service and fined $5,000 for five grams.
Attorney-at-Law Jerome Khan, who represented Winter, in a Facebook post explained that the Full Court comprising Chief Justice Madam Justice Roxanne George and Justice Sandil Kissoon allowed the Appeal of his client Shem Winter who was convicted and sentenced to 3 years imprisonment for being in possession of 16 grams of cannabis.
Winter was undefended when he plead guilty at the Lethem Magistrate Court claiming that the narcotic was for his personal use.
The appeal was on a singular ground that the sentence was unduly harsh and that the Magistrate did not apply Section 73(b) of the Narcotic and Psychotropic Substance Act which has provisions to consider special reasons in determining a sentence. Winter is 21 years old, gainfully employed, and was never caught in a commercial transaction selling the narcotic.
In allowing the Appeal the sentence was reduced to a 1-year suspended sentence. A suspended sentence is granted on the condition that you are allowed to go free on a bond to keep the peace for the duration of the sentence. If you are to commit another offense during the time period, the suspension is lifted and you could be sent back to jail.
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