after a top panel of judges set aside his Supreme Court conviction for possession of cocaine.

Burgess, who was slapped with an eight-year jail term for possession of 250.3 grams of cocaine with intent to supply on June 5, 1996, cried joyfully and hugged his lawyer, Mark Pettingill, upon hearing the Court of Appeal judges' verdict.

The 35-year-old Rockville Lane, Pembroke man, was found guilty of possession but not guilty of a second charge of handling the drug with intent to supply during his trial.

Mr. Pettingill argued that this was very confusing. "It's impossible to possess without handling and the charges related to the same intent to supply,'' he told the court during the appeal.

He added that the trial judge had put pressure on a divided jury to reach a verdict. The jury had been out almost five hours when Chief Justice Austin Ward told them they had "a responsibility to society''.

"If you fail to reach a verdict, the problem isn't going away. All I can do is order another trial and somebody else has to hear the case at expense to the state.'' They returned an hour later to deliver a 9-3 majority guilty verdict.

The Appeal panel upheld Mr. Pettingill's arguments and set aside the conviction. They added that it was " undesirable'' and "objectionable'' to put pressure on the jury in the way the trial judge had done.

Burgess said he was about to throw the cocaine in the trash when he was arrested in the 2001 Cuts Boutique clothes shop on Court Street, Hamilton, on June 5.

He had been carrying a plastic bag containing two packages of cocaine worth a total of $75,772.

Burgess said he was handed the drugs by a man in the shop bathroom and wanted to throw them in the rubbish when he saw narcotics officers outside on the street. The man who gave him the drugs, Jamaican-born former cruise ship wine steward Ernell Campbell, was handed a five-year sentence. He testified that Burgess had struck a deal with him to bring the drugs to Bermuda. Burgess denied making the deal and said he had never seen Campbell before.

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