A man who has spent more than 20 years in prison after being convicted of murder appeared before a Supreme Court judge yesterday to be resentenced.

Cyril Darville, 50, a former butcher at City Market, received the mandatory death sentence on August 13, 1992 for the shooting death of Ray Anthony Feaste, 27, in 1990. His body was found on a track road off Gladstone Road on March 17, 1990.

Feaste, a hacker or unlicensed taxi driver, was last seen alive on March 10, 1990.

Darville was charged with the murders of eight other hackers at age 28, but he was only tried for Feaste's murder.

Authorities read a death warrant to Darville in 1996, but his execution was stayed on the grounds that he was insane.

In 2006, the Privy Council ruled that the mandatory death sentence was unconstitutional.

The ruling invalidated the sentences imposed upon murder convicts prior to the decision.

Darville's lawyer, Dorsey McPhee, said that Darville's death sentence was commuted to life in 1997. Senior Justice Jon Isaacs said since the original sentence was rendered void by the Privy Council decision, the commutation on which it was predicated also fell away necessitating a new sentence.

However, prosecutor Ambrose Armbrister queried whether Darville needed to be resentenced.

Armbrister said he needed to research Darville's appellate history to determine whether the life sentence was an executive order or imposed by the court.

Armbrister said if the life sentence was a judicial order the resentencing would not be necessary. He said his inquiries should be completed by Friday.

Isaacs adjourned the matter to September 3, the day after Darville's 51st birthday.

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