NASSAU| National Security Minister Marvin Dames has recommended several controversial pardons.
Dames, who chairs the pardon committee, approved the release of career criminal Shane Mackey last month. He was serving time for fraud and witness intimidation.
Mackey, who has spent most of his life in prison, was arrested for his latest crime in 2018, months after being freed from prison.
It turns out that Dames misrepresented Mackey’s crimes to the Governor General. The pardon letter claimed that he was serving time for housebreaking, but the actual pardon was for fraud and witness intimidation.
The same pardon committee also freed Kevin Barr, who pleaded guilty to housebreaking. The circumstances of Barr’s case are disturbing. He broke into a home in Lowe Sound, Andros in January 2020. A 15-year-old girl was home alone. After caressing her thigh, Barr tried to convince the child to come to his place to have sex.
Court of Appeal judges were shocked to learn that the men were pardoned prior to their appeals being heard.
Another pardoned criminal was Brunaro Moxey. Though the pardon committee thought he was rehabilitated, he’s back in prison after re-offending days after his release.
No surprise there as he’s been in and out of prison for the past five years for break-ins and thefts.
Only God knows who else Dames has recommended for pardon since the entire process is shrouded in secrecy.
Dames told the press that the public shouldn’t be afraid of the recipients of pardons.
He said, “ We’re all about second chances. As I said before, this is not releasing people out of a whim.”
