'THEY ARE GOING TO HANG ME'By Newsday Reporter Saturday, July 18 2009
DEATH ROW inmate Ronald Tiwarie, 47, whose fate now lies in the hand of the Mercy Committee, has given up all hope and is convinced that no matter what happens he will be hanged for the 2001 murder of his sister-in-law Polly Ramnarine.
“I stopped praying two months ago because I have no hope,” Tiwarie told his wife yesterday as she visited him on death row at the Port-of-Spain Prison. “No matter what happens, they are going to hang me.”
Tiwarie yesterday met with his wife Taramattee in a small room known as the “JP’s room” adjoining the inner court-yard of the prison.
Despite the fact that in 2004 he was convicted for the 2001 murder of Ramnarine, Tiwarie insisted yesterday that he is innocent of the crime.
“They fabricated evidence against me when they could not find anybody to blame. I am inside of this jail when nobody ever see me kill anybody,” he said.
After four years on death row, Tiwarie no longer looks like the tall, muscular man who was sentenced to death for brutally murdering Ramnarine in front of her daughter, Meena, in the Blue Basin river in 2004. He is gaunt, and sits in a wheelchair. His face is unshaven with a long, wild beard and thin greying hair.
Over the last four years he has been plagued with illnesses. On one occasion a varicose vein ruptured. His wife Taramattee yesterday carried watermelon, apples and grapes for her husband to eat. But he has stopped eating.
“They are trying to poison me,” Tiwarie claimed. He yesterday saw a doctor but was told to return in two weeks.
On Thursday, Tiwarie’s daughter Hema, 11, as well as his mother Shirley, 64, and his wife Taramattee appealed for mercy on behalf of their loved one. They urged the State to not make an example of Tiwarie in an effort to deter crime.
Taramattee yesterday said Hema places pictures of her father in a temple every day.
“It has not been easy for us but we are still hopeful,” she said.
The Mercy Committee is due to meet on July 28 to consider whether or not President George Maxwell Richards should be advised to pardon Tiwarie and thereby spare him from the hangman. But on Thursday lawyers acting on behalf of Tiwarie filed court papers challenging whether or not the committee can meet while Tiwarie has a matter pending before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. As of yesterday afternoon, no hearing date was set for the matter which is expected to be heard early next week.
Lawyers for Tiwarie, however, were up to yesterday feverishly preparing to file documents for the consideration of the Mercy Committee in time for a deadline set for them to do so. They have until Monday to lodge all documents they want to be considered by the committee which is to include National Security Minister Martin Joseph, Attorney General John Jeremie and Acting Director of Public Prosecutions Carla Brown-Antoine.
Yesterday attorney Desmond Allum SC, warned that all hangings must be implemented within the confines of the law, notwithstanding the current crime wave which, as at yesterday saw the murder toll hit 300.
“If they act within the law nobody can quarrel with the imposition of the death penalty,” Allum said. “But the point is they have demonstrated an inability to act within the time-lines.”
Allum, the president of the Criminal Bar Association said that in his personal opinion there have been difficulties with implementing the death penalty because of the inefficiencies of the criminal justice system.
“It is down to inefficient systems. It is not the Privy Council stopping this,” Allum said. “It is possible that in haste there can be an abuse of process. The answer is to make the system more efficient. I am totally opposed to the death penalty but for those who propose it, follow the law.”
