before the Committee disclose a violation of article 14, paragraph 1, and consequently of article 6 of the Covenant. the trial judge refused a request from counsel to call a witness on Mr. Wright’s behalf. It is not apparent, however, that the testimony sought from this witness would have buttressed the defence in respect of the charge of murder, as it merely concerned the nature of the injuries allegedly inflicted on the author by a mob outside the Waterford police station. In the circumstances, the Committee finds no violation of this provision. 10. In capital punishment cases, the obligation of States parties to observe rigorously all the guarantees for a fair trial set out in article 14 of the Covenant admits of no exception. The Committee is of the view that Mr. Clifton Wright, a victim of violations of article 14 and consequently of article 6, is entitled, according to article 2, paragraph 3 (a), of the Covenant to an effective remedy, in this case entailing his release, as so many years have elapsed since his conviction. 8.6 Finally, the Committee has considered the author’s allegation that he was ill-treated by the police. While this claim has only been contested by the State party in so far as its admissibility is concerned, the Committee is of the view that the author has not corroborated his claim, by either documentary or medical evidence. Indeed, the matter appears to have been raised in the court of first instance, which was unable to make a finding, and brought to the attention of the Court of Appeal. In the circumstances and in the absence of further information, the Committee is unable to find that article 10 has been violated. 11. The Committee would wish to receive information, within 90 days, on any relevant measures taken by the State party in respect of the Committee’s Views. APPENDIX Individual opinion submitted by Mr. Bertil Wennergren, pursuant to rule 94, paragraph 3, of the rules of procedure, concerning the Views of the Committee on communication No. 349/1989, Clifton Wright v. Jamaica 8.7 The Committee is of the opinion that the imposition of a sentence of death upon conclusion of a trial in which the provisions of the Covenant have not been respected constitutes, if no further appeal against the sentence is possible, a violation of article 6 of the Covenant. As the Committee noted in its General Comment 6(16), the provision that a sentence of death may be imposed only in accordance with the law and not contrary to the provisions of the Covenant implies that “the procedural guarantees therein prescribed must be observed, including the right to a fair hearing by an independent tribunal, the presumption of innocence, the minimum guarantees for the defence, and the right to review of conviction and sentence by a higher tribunal.3 In the present case, since the final sentence of death was passed without having met the requirements for a fair trial set out in article 14, it must be concluded that the right protected by article 6 of the Covenant has been violated. I agree with the Committee to the extent that the trial judge should have brought the implications of the pathologist’s estimation that the victim’s death had occurred forty-seven hours before the post-mortem to the attention of the jury. I do not, however, consider that these implications were such that they could have influenced either verdict or sentence. I therefore disagree with the finding that said omission must be deemed a denial of justice and that this remains so even if the placing of this evidence before the jury might not, in the event, have changed the verdict and the outcome of the case. In my opinion, the omission was a minor irregularity that did not affect the conduct of the trial in as much as article 14 of the Covenant is concerned. My reasons are the following: The pathologist testified both in respect of how and when death of the victim occurred. In the latter respect, he first stated that the “post-mortem examination was performed at the Spanish Town hospital morgue forty-seven hours after death”. Upon the judge’s question “When you [said] the examination was forty-seven hours after death you are estimating it?”, he replied “That is my estimation”. This estimation was not questioned during the trial, although death must have occurred ninety-one, and not forty-seven, hours before the post-mortem examination, namely when the victim’s wife began to 9. The Human Rights Committee, acting under article 5, paragraph 4, of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, is of the view that the facts 3 See Official Records of the General Assembly, Thirty-seventh Session, Supplement No. 40 (A/37/40), annex V, para. 7 106