The Court of Appeal yesterday reserved its decision in the trial of the country's last remaining Death Row inmate.

Kofhe Goodman, also known as Edwardo Ferguson, was sentenced to death in 2013 for the September 2011 murder of 11-year-old Marco Archer, who was found dead in bushes near Goodman's home days after the boy failed to return home after running an errand for his mother. Goodman is challenging the conviction and sentence.

Court President Justice Anita Allen and Justices of Appeal Jon Isaacs and Stella Crane-Scott are presiding.

Goodman's lawyer, Wayne Munroe, QC, is appealing the conviction based on the "rude and obstructionist" behavior of his former attorney Geoffrey Farquharson, adverse pretrial publicity in the weeks leading up to the commencement of the trial, which included to reference a proposed law for the implementation of a Sex Offender's Registry named in the victim's honor, although there was no evidence of sexual assault in the case.Munroe also argued that the trial judge allowed the defense lawyer's rude behavior to distract the jury from the flaws in the circumstantial evidence regarding the incident. He also argued that the death penalty was not an appropriate penalty.

Legislation passed in 2011 defined death eligible offenses as murders that occurred during the commission of or furtherance of a felony. And Munroe argued that the prosecution led no evidence of kidnapping or sexual assault during the trial. In response, Acting Director of Public Prosecutions Garvin Gaskin said that Goodman and his attorney appeared to work in unison to derail the trial. He referred to an instance in which Farquharson was allegedly overheard instructing Goodman to "play sick".

Munroe said that it was counsel's duty to act properly, to give their client advice and to take instructions on the evidence and facts. He pointed to an instance where Farquharson repeatedly interrupted the judge during his summation to the jury. Munroe said, "No client can instruct you to do that."

On the question of sentence, Gaskin said that the incident occurred just over nine months after Goodman was released from prison after serving time for the attempted murder of a young boy. He said this demonstrated that Goodman had not been rehabilitated. Questioned by the court on the question of evidence of kidnapping, Gaskin said there was indirect evidence "of an abduction, evidence of an unlawful taking of this child".

Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian