British legal team saves Trinidad trio from death row

CLIFFORD Chance and Collyer-Bristow have achieved a rare legal feat by having the death sentences against three men quashed by the Privy Council.

Katy-Marie Wilson, of Clifford Chance, and Clive Woolf, of Collyer-Bristow, represented the trio, who were on death row waiting to be hanged after being convicted in Trinidad of shooting another man in 1992.

An appeal to Trinidad's Court of Appeal in 1997 launched Wilson and Woolf's appeals to the Privy Council, which is the final court of appeal for several Caribbean countries under Commonwealth rules.

The case was put by Andrew Nicol QC, Julian Knowles and James Dingemans in March this year and the five-strong panel overturned the convictions several days ago.

Wilson, who represented Sheldon Lewis, says it is very rare for cases to get as far as the Privy Council.