$120m impasse

Jamaica Gleaner | 2025-12-02 | Original Article

A legal squabble is brewing over the $120 million the Supreme Court ordered the Government to pay George Williams, the mentally disabled man who languished in prison for nearly 50 years – or his entire working life – awaiting a trial.

 

The multimillion-dollar award – $78.6 million for compensatory damages and $42 million for vindicatory damages – was made by Justice Sonya Wint Blair on June 26 at the conclusion of a lawsuit filed by Pamella Green on behalf of Williams, her 79-year-old uncle.

 

Five months later, Wint Blair has still not signed the final order authorising the payout, Green told The Gleaner on Sunday.

 

The Court Administration Division has not yet responded to a request for comment.

 

However, amid the wait, the Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC), which represents the Government, has lodged a challenge in the Court of Appeal against the $120-million award, Green and her lawyer John Clarke disclosed.

 

The Government had initially offered Williams $6 million for the 50 years he sat in a high-security prison awaiting trial for murder.

 

Further, the AGC has filed an application in the Supreme Court asking Wint Blair to compel Green to put measures in place to account for how the multimillion-dollar payout is to be used, among other things.

 

Green and her uncle, Aldwin Jones, who also helps to care for Williams, believe the delay by Wint Blair in signing the order and the actions of the Government are “disrespectful”.

 

“She thinks that when she sign the order we are the ones who are going to pocket the money. It’s a form of disrespect,” she said, making reference to the judge.

 

“At the end of the day, if a we spend the money, a George we a spend it pan. We nah go pocket it fi wiself and George is not okay. No, we are not going to do that,” Green insisted.

 

Green, who resides in the United States, was appointed ‘committee’, or trustee, to “exercise jurisdiction over the management of the property and affairs” of her uncle on September 15, 2020, according to a court order made by Justice Annmarie Nembhard.

 

Among the duties covered by the order was the acquisition of property in Williams’ name, the execution of a will on his behalf, the payment of debt, continuing or instituting legal action on Williams’ behalf, and “all financial affairs” of her uncle.

 

The plan, she said, is to purchase a home for Williams so he can be relocated from the assisted-living facility where he now resides and be around his family, “so that he can live longer”.

 

“George at the facility is like he is still in prison ... just that it is a different environment. He doesn’t have the option to be free right through the day,” she said, noting that her 79-year-old uncle still requests things he enjoys.

 

However, lawyers for the Government, in their application to Wint Blair, said Green should be permitted to pay the attorneys who handled her lawsuit from the multimillion-dollar award, then invest the remainder in an interest-bearing account at a reputable financial institution with deposit insurance.

 

“The trustee is to cause to be prepared an annual account of the income and expenditure in respect of the welfare and maintenance of the claimant (Williams) and to furnish a copy of same to the Supreme Court,” said the application obtained by The Gleaner.

 

“The claimant (Green) was awarded substantial judgment sums in the present claim. The grant of the orders sought are furtherance of the overriding objective to deal with cases justly,” it said.

 

Williams’ ordeal first came to light in a 2020 report by the Independent Commission of Investigations, which has oversight responsibility for the prisons.

 

The report revealed that he was one of seven mentally disabled men who had each spent at least 40 years in prison awaiting a trial for various crimes.

 

One of them, Noel Chambers – a Rastafarian like Williams – died on January 27, 2020 at the age of 81 after spending 40 years in prison without a trial.

 

Williams was taken into custody on July 21, 1970 following a deadly knife attack on a family as they drove through the community of Mount Diablo in St Catherine, according to court records.

 

In December that year, he was charged with murder for the stabbing death of Ian Laurie during the incident.

 

Williams was examined on February 3, 1971 and found to be suffering from schizophrenia, but was in a state of partial remission.

 

He was declared unfit to plea on March 25, 1971 and ordered kept in custody at the governor general’s pleasure.

 

Wint Blair declared in her ruling to the lawsuit that the failure by several state agencies was a breach of Williams’ right to due process and a fair hearing by an independent and impartial court within a reasonable time.

 

livern.barrett@gleanerjm.com

 

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