Appeals Court Judges have explained why they ruled that two men who walked free after a jury could not decide if they had plotted to kill five trial witnesses should not be re-tried.

A Supreme Court Judge had already ruled out the possibility of a retrial for Kenneth Sinclair Durrant and Javon Ernest Gardner earlier this year. But the Department of Public Prosecutions tried to secure a retrial — claiming the judge made a mistake when he said the case could not go before another jury.

A Court of Appeal hearing last month heard complex legal arguments on the case from both the DPP and the two overseas QCs representing Mr. Durrant and Mr. Gardner over the retrial issue.

The QCs said the Court of Appeal had no right to even hear the appeal for a retrial.

And in the judgment of the Appeal Judges they concluded that the DPP had no right to appeal the decision. They also said that the Appeal Court “has no jurisdiction to entertain this (DPP) appeal which must be dismissed”.

Both men denied they had plotted to kill the witnesses, and a Supreme Court jury last November was unable to reach a majority decision after hearing the evidence. The jury cleared the men of a sixth charge of trying to pervert the course of justice.

Wheels were then put in motion for a fresh trial on the five conspiracy charges.

But in February this year Puisne Judge Carlisle Greaves, who presided over the original trial, ruled out a retrial because in his view the charge of perverting the course of justice — to which the men had been cleared by a jury — “encapsulated” the five individual conspiracy to kill charges.

The DPP claimed this was a mistake.

But they were unable to prove the Court of Appeal had the legal right to pass judgment on whether Mr. Justice Greaves’ decision was correct. Defence barristers had argued the Court of Appeal judges did not have legal jurisdiction because Mr. Justice Greaves made his decision outside any trial on indictment proceedings. [bul] At the Supreme Court arraignments sessions on Friday a Jamaican national Vernon Eugene Berkeley, who had been extradited to Bermuda in relation to the conspiracy to murder trial was given a stay of indictment. With the prosecution case against him stopped, Chief Justice Richard Ground ordered Mr. Berkeley be released from custody and have his possessions and travel documents returned.