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HOME	FEBRUARY 19th, 2005

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CASTRIES, St. Lucia (AP) - An appeals court ruled Monday that 13 prisoners convicted of killing Grenada's leader and four Cabinet members in a 1983 bloody coup should remain behind bars, overturning an earlier decision that promised possible release.

In a 37-page decision, the three-member Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeals sided with the government, by ruling that the prisoners' arguments had already been ruled on, effectively striking down a March ruling by Grenada's High Court that overturned their life sentences.

Monday's ruling also barred the prisoners from "re-litigating" their case, though it wasn't clear if this would block them from appealing to London's Privy Council, the highest court of appeal for most former British colonies in the Caribbean. In a written judgment, judge Brian Alleyne ruled that the arguments presented had been heard and ruled on years ago. "We are tremendously disappointed," said Cajeton Hood, one of the prisoner's lawyers. He said his clients would seek permission to appeal to the Privy Council.

In March, Grenada High Court judge Kenneth Benjamin overturned the prisoners' life sentences, saying the original death sentences - which had been commuted - were unconstitutional. The prisoners were among 17 whose 1983 coup led the United States to invade Grenada in one of the last Cold War conflicts.

Coard's wife, Phyllis, was released from the Richmond Hill Prison in 2000 to undergo cancer treatment. She is still to return to continue her sentence. Three of the prisioners - Andy Mitchell, Cosmos Richardson and Vincent Joseph - all soliders of the disbanded People's Revolutionary Army (PRA) were given lengthy prison sentences.

The 13 originally sentenced to hang but later commuted to life in prison, include former Deputy Prime Minister Bernard Coard, Army Commander General Hudson Austin, ex-ambassador to Cuba, Major Leon Cornwall, and former Mobilisation Minister, Selwyn Strachan.

The Bishop killers, as they became known, contend that the death sentences imposed on them in 1986 were unconstitutional and illegal. State prosecutors claim in the trial that the Central Committee of the then ruling New Jewel Movement (NJM), under Coard 's leadership had given the orders to kill Prime Minister Bishop, four Cabinet ministers and six supporters at Fort Rupert (George) on October 19, 1983.

Coard has consistently denied that he ordered the executions. In an unsworn statement from the dock, imprisoned Lieutenant-Colonel Ewart Layne said that it was he and not the Central Committee that gave soldiers ordered to recapture the Fort where bishop had sought refuge after supporters had freed him from house arrest on the fatal day.

Six days after the killings, thousands of US troops stormed the island on a mission that then US president Ronald Reagan said would restore order, protect American medical students, and prevent a build-up of Cuban military advisors and weapons.

The US government said 45 Grenadians, 24 Cubans and 19 Americans were killed in the invasion, though others give a higher toll. Some Grenadians complain of US meddling in the trial that convicted the so-called "Grenada 17".