Harvey's biography

In 1997, Harvey became involved with Jamaica AIDS Support for Life (JASL),^[2] an organisation that was a partner of Christian Aid.^[3] He became the group's Kingston co-ordinator, and in this position primarily worked to ensure that the marginalised groups within the country – including prisoners, sex workers, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people – had access to information about the HIV virus.^[2] He was selected as Jamaica's representative at the Latin America and Caribbean Council of AIDS Service Organizations.^[2] He was also a registered delegate to the conference of the People's National Party.^[2] In the week preceding his death, Harvey led JASL's annual candle-lit vigil in memory of those who had died as a result of AIDS.^[3]

Anti-LGBT sentiment in Jamaica

In 2006, Time magazine asked whether Jamaica was "the most homophobic place on Earth", and answered that it "may be the worst offender".^[4] The country's laws criminalising same-sex activity between males were introduced in 1864, during the British colonial administration. According to the Sexual Offences Act of 2009, any man convicted under these laws must register as a sex offender.^[5][6] These laws have been cited as contributing to wider homophobic attitudes among the Jamaican populace,^[6] including the view that gay people are criminals regardless of whether or not they have committed any crime.^[5] Anti-LGBT perspectives have been furthered by the island's conservative Christian churches.^[5] Many reggae and dancehall songs, among them Buju Banton's "Boom Bye Bye", call for the killing of gays.^[5] Writing for the International Business Times in the summer of 2013, the journalist Palash Gosh noted that while Jamaica was "awash in crime and violence, gays and lesbians are particularly prominent targets of wanton brutality."^[5] In the summer of 2013, Human Rights Watch carried out five weeks of fieldwork among Jamaica's LGBT community, reporting that over half of those interviewed had experienced violence as a result of their sexual orientation or gender identity, sometimes on more than one occasion.^[6]

Arrest and trial

Following investigations, in 2005 police arrested four individuals – Dwayne Owen, Andre West, Ryan Wilson, and Chevaughn Gibson – charging them all with committing murder in the furtherance of a robbery.^[12][13] The accused were from an area known as Vietnam in Grant's Pen.^[9] Defence lawyers repeatedly complained that the prosecution had been late in handing over relevant documents to them.^[14]

The case was brought before the Home Circuit Court on 24 April 2014, however it could not proceed because important documents had not been served on the defence.^[14] The witnesses for the case, who included ten police officers and two civilians, were bound over.^[15] Senior Puisne Judge Gloria Smith stated that no further adjournments of the case would be permitted, ordering the Director of Public Prosecutions to make full disclosure to the defence, and insisting that the trial must start on 19 May.^[14] In her words, "This case has been going on for far too long and has reached the point where something must happen."^[15] However, on that date the trial was postponed again due to the unavailability of a courtroom, being rescheduled for 1 June.^[9] At that date it was again postponed, this time due to a shortage of available jurors, with the new date being set for 7 July.^[16]

In early July 2014, the prosecution announced that they were dropping all charges against Wilson, who was declared free to go after over eight years in prison.^[12][13] They had determined that at the time of the murder he had been in custody at the Constant Spring Police Station.^[13] The prosecution also stated that it was dropping the murder charges against Gibson, who would instead be charged with misprision of felony.^[12] After a three-week trial, in late July a twelve-person jury unanimously found both Owen and West guilty of murder.^[13] The state prosecutors, Kathy Pryce and Karen Seymour Johnson, requested that Owen and West face the death penalty.^[13][17] However, in November Justice Lloyd Hibbert sentenced them to life in prison, stipulating that they must serve a minimum of thirty years before becoming eligible for parole. He stated that in sentencing the pair he took into account the fact that they had already spent a decade in custody.^[17] In December, both Owen and West launched appeals against their conviction.^[18]

Independently of the Harvey case, West was also charged with being involved in the murder of Jamie Lue, a financial analyst at Alliance Capital Limited, who had been abducted, robbed, and killed in December 2005.^[9]