BB-2-rrr-1
Sharon Amos
Meeting with Registrar Barnewell [K.W. Barnwell] 18/10/78 (Jimmy Jr & Sharon Amos)
-basically he did not feel that there was any problem with JJ coming to town because he said the case is “adjourned sine die” which means it is not before the court (so he’s saying it’s not likely JJ would be arrested) – of course I didn’t accept this – in other words my arguments were all based on the fact that JJ couldn’t take a chance of coming to town and being arrested and being asked to produce the child because he never would turn the child over to reactionaries and he would rather spend his last days and die with his people then to end up separated from them in jail
-he kept trying to assure me that he would never activate the case as he has the orders in his desk and he showed the file to me but I kept saying things like what if you are out of town etc.
-I asked him how the thing could be activated anyway if it is not a correct order in the first place, he said the order may not be correct but it was issued lawfully by a judge so to prove it is incorrect it must be proven incorrect
-but he said it hasn’t been issued at all so in order to challenge it you’d have to carry it out and prove it incorrect
-he said that he is the head marshall and he thus is the Chief Executive officer of the Court – he executes the orders of the court and the marshalIs are under his supervision
-if he were out of town, it is the Chief justice who determines what is done (he showed me this in a legal book) #66 The Chief Justice may determine the distribution of business – but he said in this case the “may” is like a “shall” and he shall determine the course of business
-he said he as the registrar would have to authorize anyone to execute the orders
-he said it’s like a dead file as it’s not before a judge so the order is suspended as there is no judge on it
-he said you have to apply to cancel the order – to have it set aside – he said this should have been done/ the order shouldhave been set aside (our attorney should have done this)
-he said she knows our attorney Luckhoo made some attempt to withdraw the whole proceeding (but no decision was given by the judge at all)
-Barnwell didn’t understand the action of Judge Bishop/ he said it’s ridiculous to say you got calls and so you’re not going to decide a case (I told him that it wasn’t us and how this is a strategy being used against us as it was done on several occasions in situations to aggrevate people like the DA) -he said that he wouldn’t have let this influence him in that if you do, then people who don’t like a judge will call him and then the judge won’t sit on the case and the person could do this until they got a judge they liked
-he said that when this case starts again – it could start all over fresh. Tim and Grace would be the one to initiate this, to ask it start all over again ge fresh (which they might do as the proceedings were subject to some question from the beginning) if they do that this is called “Denovo” – to start all over fresh and then if you do so, the whole prior proceedings are no longer in action
-he said the judge can make an order but cannot serve it – the Registrar must serve it
-I said “what if he orders you to serve it”
-he said that if he is ordered to serve it that is called a Writ of Mad Mandamus and then the Registrar must serve it or he’d be in contempt of court -however the matter must come before the same judge -(the particular arrest order) because if it comes before a different juge, he might say, I have knowledge of this, I will start all over and then it would be “application denovo”
-in regard to arresting him, he said there is no court to bring him to, the case is not assigned. The arrest order must have relation to existing bodies and since there is no judge on the case and no court working on this at present (OVER)
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BB-2-rrr-2
then they can’t arrest him (they’d have to assign it to a judge first who then could activate the case – who then would have to make a writ of mandamus to have Barnwell activate the order)
-I said that we had to have it in writing becauseof what happened when Dr. Reid, the PM and Mingowere out of the country when the order was written and illegally served in the first place/ I explained that we couldn’t take a chance that JJ would leave the country and if those were out of the country, someone in customs or immigration might stop him from returning because Tim Stoen was proven to be with the CIA and he might use powerful contacts to try to stop it.
-he first said he couldn’t put it in writing because his job is not to interpret the law but just to state the facts such as you could say that this case has not come before a judge and has not been assigned as that is a matter of fact but to say “JJ will not be arrested while he gets medical treatment” is not a strict matter of fact that is in teh case, that is a statement that purports to interpret some legal position and he is not supposed to do that
-I asked if the Chief Justice could write such a letter and he said that the Chief Justice isn’t supposed to do that either because the case is not before him, it is just waiting to be re-assigned
-they are waiting to see if TOS will withdraw the cave (or actually if grace will withdraw the case as she is the party)
-I toldhim what kind of person Grace is, how she locked up John in the basement while having sex and told John she was doing so (Jimmy talked too but I cant’ remember what he said and what I said)
-we showed him the articles of Mark Lane (the 3) including the Sun Reporter (we gave him copies)
-told him Mark thought he could win a suit against these agencies but we didn’t know if we were going to do it as it might embarrass Guyana but it has been proven that the actions against us (by Tim Stone) have been actions against Guyana also (and I told him that is explained in the articles I gavehim)
-he said the Ambassador from the Embassy, US, had been in to see him. I and Barnwell said surprisingly enough the Ambassador wanted to be sure nothing would happen to JJ. (I said I was surprised at this -as I thought they weren’t taking sides either way) – he said it surprised him too. I said are you sure. He described the man as older but when Jimmie asked if it was Dick McCoy he said that might be it.
-I kept pushing about having something in writing as I said JJ won’t come in without it and he’s very ill and could die out there. I said Mohammed Ali is coming and whenever he goes the world press follows and it would look very bad for Guyana if JJ couldn’t come to meet Ali in town as well as greet him in JT and Ali might say something about J’s human rights being violated -since the case has been held too long without a decision which violates his human rights
-he said yes that would look bad
-I told him how some of our guests already were wondering why JJ wasn’t coming in for medical care – but we have so far defended Guyana
-he was impressed about Ali coming (told him about Dick Gregory too) – will tell him about Ralph Abernathy when I talk to him tomorrow – he said something about his son or brother really liking Ali/ his brother met him/ his brother is a doctor in No. or So. Carolina/ I think So. Carolina
-his wife just got back from Carolina as she went there to get surgery for vericose veins from her brother-in-law
-Barnwell said that tho he didn’t want to put anything in writing he’d be willing to telll JJ in person about the assurance that he wouldn’t serve the arrest order
-I asked when he could tell JJ in person (he said next week as he’s going to Mathews Ridge then)
-I said you’ll really enjoy JT/ he said that’s what I hear. Judge [Guyana Chief Justice [Harold] Bollers said that. He thought Bollers had been to JT but I said he wants to come but he’s seen the slides and we hope he’ll come soon.
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BB-2-rrr-3
Barnewell pg 2
-finally (I kept pushing on this paper) he said that the PM had told him directly not to serve the paper. I said why can’t the PM put it in writing. Then he said something that Wills had said to us also (after talking to Barnwell) – justice must not only be done but appear to be done even tho in this case the PM is clearly on J’s side.
-I kept pushing on the paper. I said it would be very bad for world opinion if JJ died in JT without care – we have all these people who have seen JT and think it’s a great social experiment that should be studied and if JJ died it would look very bad
-he said “well I see you people are more than concerned -(not only me and Jimmie but the others who came last time) so I will talk to the chief justice and see if there’s some way of wording this (he tried to call the Chief Justice while we were there)
-he said he is a friend of Hughes (I said I’d like to invite him for dinner but would it be a problem for him) – but he said that word gets around the town. however, he made some joke about Hughes being like a knat – you don’t notice that much when It comes and you don’t notice that much when it leaves (meaning I think that Hughes might notice but it wouldn’t make that much difference)
-he said in regards to Hughes that he thinks Hughes feels he needs to put his efforts in on behalf of his client
-he said also re Hughes, we all try to get along (like he meant regardlessof what cases be has) -Barnwell was trained as an attorney
-he was very friendly/ at the end regarding putting something in writing, he said “Sometimes (meaning him) you have to bend a little backwards”
-he told little jokes and was quite warm and friendly (I don’t know how it will go tho when he talks to Bollers will someone put the rench into this as often happens?????)
-he has a sort of British accent/ he’s black – he did differ on the Bacci decision mentioned it when reading the Mark Lane article/ he said he never felt affirmative action should involve lowering of standards (lowering requirements to let a dr. in medical school for example) – I explained how blacks often had less opportunities and advantages but he said that if you lower the standards then the majority (whites) could say that you are prejudicial to them. I explained that whites are still in the majority in schools so obviously it isn’t prejudicial to them, but I didn’t want to argue so I said I agreed with him you shouldn’t lower standards what you should do is give them extra help so they can come up to standards and he agreed. He said when he went to England and was competing with all kinds of people from all countries (and few blacks) he made the top grade (so thus nobody sould get special help since he made it without)
-but he didn’t seem to be upset by the discussion and we kept it very low key and he went on to talk about getting something in writing
-he said when I asked when I ex could call him, that I could call him Friday for an answer and he gave me his number at work
-I told him he was very pleasant to talk to, and I’m sorry we couldn’t just meet socially