One of the two men jailed for life in 2006 for killing Jahmal and Jahmil Cooper has begun an appeal to get his sentence reduced.

Kenneth Burgess beat the 20-year-old twins and bludgeoned them with a metal baseball bat at his apartment in Crown Hill Lane, Devonshire, in revenge for them allegedly robbing his father.

Dennis Robinson guarded the door to prevent escape and then helped Burgess to dispose of the bodies 80 feet down Abbot's Cliff in Hamilton Parish in 2005.

Both men failed last year to get their convictions overturned. Yesterday, Robinson's lawyer John Perry QC began an appeal against his sentence. The Chief Justice had ordered that both men should serve the mandatory minimum of 15 years before they can be considered for release.

Mr. Perry told the Court of Appeal that the legislature infringed upon the role of the courts in setting such a mandatory minimum sentence, and that is unconstitutional.

"At the heart of our submission is that the legislature has ascribed to themselves a sentencing power that should reside in the courts and not the legislature", he argued.

The appeal is set to continue today.