Attorney General John Delaney yesterday confirmed that he provided inaccurate figures to the Senate about the number of murder convictions during his government's term, but he said he used information from the Supreme Court Registry.
Delaney claimed that up to February 21, 2012, 26 people had been convicted of murder under the Free National Movement since June 2007.
The Nassau Guardian conducted a review of the names given by Delaney and found that the information was incorrect in relation to five people: Jamal Bastian, Cordell Farrington, Sylvester Aritis, Andy Francis and Leroy Rolle.
Bastian's murder conviction was quashed on appeal in 2010.
Farrington pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 2010.
In the same year, Aritis was acquitted of murder, but convicted of attempted murder.
The Court of Appeal in 2011 reduced Francis' murder conviction to manslaughter and Rolle was convicted of manslaughter in 2010.
Delaney said that the numbers provided to the Senate "reflected the state of the Supreme Court Registry", the official court of record. However, Delaney said specific checks were made after The Guardian's article on March 12 and the information was found to be correct.
However, Delaney said the Supreme Court Registry up to yesterday, still had the statistics that he provided to the Senate.
Delaney said, "The point is, that what I uttered [in the Senate] reflected the state of the Supreme Court Registry and it's obvious that they are in a lag in the Supreme Court Registry, and in some instances, it may very well be an error in relation to the Supreme Court Registry, but in terms of the report itself it was a reflection of the Supreme Court Registry and the Supreme Court Registry is by statute and the Constitution, the court of record."
Questioned why the Supreme Court Registry's figures were not current, Delaney replied, "I could only speak for the executive. I don't speak for the judiciary."
This is not the first time that Delaney has provided inaccurate numbers on murder convictions. Last year, Delaney claimed that up to June 17, 2011 there were 12 convictions for murder and attempted murder.
The following day, Delaney revised this position and said all of the convictions were for murder.
The Guardian researched those figures and found that the numbers were inflated by including manslaughter convictions, incomplete trials and cases concluded in 2010.
Delaney later told The Guardian that the numbers he gave were not "completely accurate". Delaney provided updated figures stating that there were 10 convictions for murder, manslaughter and attempted murder combined as of June 2011.
Yesterday, Delaney criticized The Guardian for "going off on a tangent" on whether the people were found guilty of murder or manslaughter. However, he agreed that murder and manslaughter are distinct offenses.
The document tabled by Delaney in the Senate on February 22 specifically refers to murders. According to the document, there were only two convictions for murder up to June 17, 2011, although Delaney had previously claimed there were 12 murder convictions for that period.
Asked about the discrepancy, Delaney said he did not have the figures in front of him. He promised to check out the information and get back to The Guardian.
Delaney complained The Guardian article, which questioned the accuracy of his figures, "was taken out of context". He said he provided the numbers in response to a PLP senator's claim that there were only 25 murder convictions during the FNM's term.
Delaney said he presented the figures to put the conviction numbers under both governments into perspective. There were nine murder convictions under the prior PLP administration.
Delaney said, "By whichever yardstick they choose to use, whether it was 21 or 22 [murder convictions], it was still significantly more than nine."

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