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Firing squad walks free
Published on: 12/3/06.
by TIM SLINGER
THEY can be described as the underlings of The October 19, 1983 killings of former Grenada Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and a number of his Cabinet colleagues.
However, Corporal Vincent Joseph and Privates Cosmos Richardson and Andy Mitchell played key roles in the executions – they were the triggermen.
Each armed with a machine gun, the former members of the People's Revolutionary Army (PRG) repeatedly sprayed their former leader with bullets despite desperate pleas for mercy.
"I aimed my gun at the line of people in which Prime Minister Comrade Bishop stood and fired. The people in the line in which Conrade Bishop stood, fell to the ground. Blood was running all about there," Joseph admitted to police in a statement which outlined him as one of the front line executioners.
Richardson also gave a detailed account of his participation, noting that he helped line up Bishop and his Cabinet colleagues against a wall at the then Fort Rupert Square which overlooks the Capital, St. George's.
"I opened fire from the Square on the people in the line. Some of them fell backward and some fell sideways ..."
"The bodies were lying in pools of blood and they were burst up," Richardson said in his gory account which was revealed to judge and jury.
They were horrific details that bore the resemblance of a Hollywood movie.
One salient legal point which stood out during the trial however was that Joseph, Richardson and Mitchell acted under duress and possibly fear for their own lives.
The three had obeyed orders from The PRG's Central Committee, headed by former Deputy Prime Minister Bernard Coard, to execute Bishop and his faithful Cabinet colleagues, including a pregnant Minister of Education, Jacqueline Creft.
Even during the year long trial, the three executioners said little in their defence, an apparent allegiance to their military superiors who stood next to them in the dock.
A 12-member jury believed the three did not participate of their own free will and subsequently found them guilty of manslaughter, while the remaining 14, which included Coard, his wife Phyllis and former army chief General Hudson Austin, were all condemned to die for their decisive roles.
Years later, in a seemingly act of clemency, the 14 had their sentences committed to life imprisonment, with Phyllis a few years ago being released on medical ground.
The three were sentenced to 30 years imprisonment for their roles.
Their release yesterday fell short by two days of spending 20 years behind bars since their conviction. It was the latest episode in the historic story about the Grenada Revolution, which gripped world attention 23 years ago with a United States lead military intervention, following the death of Bishop and his ministerial faithfuls.
An ideological outlook that had been exposed to Marxist political philosophy crumbed after Bishop who became a popular leader had taken control of the government from former Prime Minister Sir Eric Gairy in a bloodless coup d'etat.
A power struggle between Coard and a group of his hardline supporters and Bishop ended the 1979 experiement after it was felt that the popular leader had begun to stray from the Marxist ideology and practices.
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