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Wrongly Convicted Database Record
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Charge: |
Murder |
Sentence: |
Death |
Years Imprisoned: |
12 |
Year Crime: |
1989 |
Year Convicted: |
1994 |
Year Cleared: |
2001 |
U.S. State or Country of Crime: |
Trinidad and Tobago |
County or Region of Crime: |
Victoria |
City of Crime: |
Debe |
Result: |
Judicially Exonerated Released |
Summary of Case: |
"Ann Marie Boodram was wrongly convicted in 1994 of the murder of her husband on January 20, 1989 in Debe, in the county of Victoria, in Trinidad and Tobago. Boodram was prosecuted based on two statements supporting that she killed her abusive husband with curried chicken laced with weed killer. She allegedly made incriminating admissions in a statment written on February 1, 1989 by a police officer who refused to allow her to read it and told her she could go home in an hour if she signed it. After signing it she wasn't released, but instead was held in custody and for the next 24-hours she wasn't given anything to drink or eat. She was then taken into a room where two officers repeatedly slapped her and told her she murdered her husband. The officers refused her requests to call her family lawyer, and Boodram, who was pregnant, refused the repeated demands of one of the officers -- Inspector Douglas -- to have sex with him in exchange for being released. Enraged at being spurned, Douglas thew her down on the floor and proceeded to rape her. Several hours later, still denied food and drink and bleeding from her vagina, Boodram was beaten about her head by an officer and finally acceded to Douglas' demand that she sign a second statement that had been written by an officer and that she wasn't allowed to read. Boodram was then arrested and charged with her husband's murder. Boodram was in custody for more than five years awaiting trial. After a 21 day trial she was convicted by a jury on April 21, 1994, and sentenced to death. Boodram's conviction was overturned in 1997 by the Trinidad and Tobago Court of Appeals on the basis the trial judge had failed to properly instruct the jury to disregared her second statement that had been ruled inadmissible. Boodram was retried, and after a six day trial she was convicted by a jury on February 20, 1998. She was again sentenced to death. Boodram's appeal was denied by the court of appeal on March 5, 1999. Boodram then appealed to the Privy Council in London -- which was the highest judicial court for Trinidad and Tobago. On April 10, 2001 the Privy Court quashed Boodram's conviction and sentence on the basis her trial lawyer had not provided her with competent assistance of counsel, and ordered that she not be retried. The charges were subsequently dismissed and Boodram was released after more than 12 years and 2 months in custody." |
Conviction Caused By: |
Ineffective assistance of counsel. |
Innocence Proved By: |
"On April 10, 2001 the Privy Court quashed Boodram's conviction and sentence on the basis her trial lawyer had not provided her with competent assistance of counsel, and ordered that she not be retried." |
Defendant Aided By: |
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Compensation Awarded: |
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Was Perpetrator Identified? |
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Age When Imprisoned: |
33 |
Age When Released: |
45 |
Sex: |
Female |
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Information Source 1: |
Boodram v. The State (Trinidad and Tobago) [2001] UKPC 20 (10 April 2001) |
Information Location 1: |
http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKPC/2001/20.html |
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Innocents Database Created and Maintained by Hans Sherrer innocents@forejustice.org