Andrea Downer, Gleaner Writer
Clement Lloyd Beckford, shortly after he was released from prison in Septem-ber 2004. - Contributed
Clement Beckford is finally home. Twenty-six years after the gangly young man left the little district in Hanover where he grew up, for The Bahamas, he has returned, and a lot has changed. His grandmother who raised him and his mother, have both died. He said the only thing that's familiar about the house he now lives in is an old tank in the back yard. His mother, Maudeline Brown, died in May last year without seeing Clement, her first born, but, according to relatives, her fervent wish was for his brothers and sisters to find him and bring him home. It took them one year to do it.
Clement had been raised mainly by his grandmother in Kendal, Hanover, but he divided his time between her house on a hill and his aunt's house just across the road from where he lived. He also lived for some time with his mother, her husband and his siblings, in the neighbouring district of Cauldwell in the parish.
Separated from his mother and brothers and sisters for the most part, Clement's extended family helped to prepare him for adulthood. His aunt's husband taught him electrical installation and when he left home at 20 years old for The Bahamas, he had no difficulty landing a job with a power company.
Sitting in the living room of his family's home in Cauldwell, Hanover, last Tuesday, directly beneath a smiling portrait of his mother, Clement's hair, generously flecked with sliver, was the only
visible indication of his 55 years. Speaking in measured tones, he disclosed that he did not go to The Bahamas seeking a better life. "I just wanted to explore and see what was out there," he explained, a smile playing around his lips. But when Clement got to The Bahamas, his new-found freedom was short-lived.
Eight years after he arrived, he was charged with the murder of his girlfriend and sentenced to 14 years in prison. However, in what chairperson for Amnesty International for The Bahamas, R.E. Barnes, described as a clear case of human rights violation, Clement spent 25 years at the Fox Hill Prison, the island's lone penal institution. After serving 14 years and being released from prison, Clement was sent back to Fox Hill and he remained there for 11 more years.
Destroyed his documents
Shortly after he was arrested and charged in connection with the death of his girlfriend, Clement had confessed in letters to his mother and his uncle-in-law that he had destroyed his Jamaican passport. By then, he had also written a detailed confession to The Bahamian police, admitting that he committed the crime. The Sunday Gleaner has been unable to ascertain whether his relatives
responded to him or if they
provided him with the documents that he desperately begged them to send him. However, when Clement was released from prison after serving his 14-year prison term, he had no documents to prove to The Bahamian authorities that he was Jamaican, and because of this, attempts to send him back to Jamaica failed.
Clement was sent back to Fox Hill, where he remained for 11 more years until Dr. James Shearer, the brother of former Prime Minister of Jamaica, Hugh Shearer, learned about his plight. Dr. Shearer had been involved in Christian ministry at Fox Hill for a number of years and another prisoner told him about Clement and begged him to help in getting him released.
Dr. Shearer then enlisted the help of his friend, Dorsey McPhee, who is an attorney, who filed a motion of wrongful imprisonment on Clement's behalf in The Bahamian Supreme Court. Clement was released from prison with an apology from The Bahamian government in September 2004 and his struggle to return home continued.
Internet discovery
Clement's case came to the attention of The Sunday Gleaner, last August during research on the Internet. A paragraph in The U.S. Department of State's Annual Human Rights Report for 2004 stated "... In September, authorities released a Jamaican national after the Supreme Court ruled that he had been unlawfully detained for 14 years. The Jamaican completed a court-mandated 14-year sentence for manslaughter in 1989, but a lack of effective record keeping following his release and confusion about his nationality resulted in his detention for 11 more years without additional charge. The matter subsequently was resolved and he was released with an apology following the filing for a writ of habeas corpus ..."
After almost three months of intensive investigations, The Sunday Gleaner found out that 'the Jamaican' to whom the report referred was Clement Beckford. Further investigations revealed that he was still in The Bahamas at the Sandilands Psychiatric Hospital, almost one year after being released from prison. The Sunday Gleaner then contacted his lawyer, Mr. McPhee, who disclosed that he had contacted one of Clement's family members in Jamaica with the hope that his family would provide the necessary identification documents that Clement would need to return to Jamaica when his case against the Bahamian government was settled.
However, Mr. McPhee expressed disappointment that several months after he had called, the family member had not contacted him after promising to do so.
The Sunday Gleaner then spoke to several members of Clement's family including his aunt, cousins and siblings and travelled to Kendal, Hanover, to the district where he was raised.
Awarded compensation
After successful lobbying by Mr. McPhee, Clement was awarded approximately US$200,000 (J$12.4 million) in an out-of-court settlement as compensation for wrongful imprisonment for the 11 additional years that he was incarcerated.
After being released from prison, Clement spent six months at a half-way house and a year-and-a- half at a psychiatric hospital in The Bahamas, before his family went to The Bahamas to claim him. Clement finally returned to Jamaica, and his family's home in Cauldwell, Hanover, in June this year.
A number of his relatives are happy to have him home. A family member, who is now Clement's caregiver, explained that she recognised Clement from his photo when the story first appeared in The Sunday Gleaner in August last year. She said she had last seen Clement when he was about 22 years old.
"When we saw the story, everyone was talking about it, and everyone was saying the family will have to try to bring him home," she beamed.
Clement now spends his days at the house in Cauldwell, Hanover, where the laughter of his brothers and sisters and occasionally his can be heard - a house that stands proudly on an incline and has pride of place among the other more humble dwellings, which line a ridge. With halting steps due to a knee injury sustained in prison, Clement carefully made his way to his mother's grave that lies to the side of the house. It is a journey, which his caregiver said he makes almost on a daily basis.
He admitted that he is sorry that he was not able to see his mother before she died, but indicated that he had made peace with her death. However, he gracefully declined to speak about his girlfriend's death or any of the events leading up to his long imprisonment.
"We all have to go some time. I am sorry that I did not get to see her (my mother) before she died, but I am really happy to be home," he stated, gazing into the distance with eyes - twin orbs of fire, shielding thoughts that he refused to share.
