Subject matter: Petition for leave to appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council by individual under sentence of death Procedural issues: Interim measures of protection Non exhaustion of domestic remedies Substantive issues: Right to life Fair trial Right to appeal conviction and sentence Articles of the Covenant: 6 (4) and 14 (5) Article of the Optional Protocol: 5 (2) (b) 1. The author of the communication (initial letter dated 2 March 1987; subsequent letter dated 1 May 1987) is O. W., a Jamaican citizen, awaiting execution at St. Catherine District Prison in Jamaica. He claims to be innocent of the crimes imputed to him and alleges irregularities in the various judicial proceedings leading to his death sentence. 2.1 O.W. states that in June 1974 he was questioned by the police in connection with a robbery, in the course of which two suspects had allegedly killed a female employee of an unnamed institution. Although the author explained to the police officers that he did not know the men in question or anything about the incident under investigation, he was taken to the scene of the crime, where two witnesses allegedly stated that he was not one of the men they had seen. Nevertheless O. W. was detained and taken to the police station for further investigation. When he was told to stand in line for purposes of identification, he requested the presence of a lawyer or of a member of his family, as allegedly ___________ * The Committee has dealt with several similar communications involving the same State party : Commu-nications Nos. 231/1987, 251/1987, 252/1987, 257/1987, 258/1987, 259/1987, 260/1987, 278/1988, 281/1988, 285/1988, and 286/1988. provided in Jamaican law, but his request was not granted. On 14 August 1974 he was allegedly tried, found guilty and sentenced to "indefinite detention" for possession of a firearm. The author claims that no firearm was found in his possession and none was produced in court. 2.2 On 25 November 1975 a second trial took place, before the Home Circuit court. O. W. does not specify the charges against him in the second trial, but, from the overall context of his letter, they appear to have been murder charges stemming from the robbery in June 1974 at which a woman was killed. As the jury could not arrive at a unanimous verdict, the judge ordered a new trial which took place on 13 July 1976. After being convicted and sentenced to death, the author appealed to the Court of Appeal, which, on 17 April 1977, ordered a new trial on the grounds of "unfair identification". The new trial took place in July 1978 and O. W. was again convicted and sentenced to death. His second appeal to the Court of Appeal was dismissed in December 1980. He maintains his innocence and claims that the sole witness against him was instructed by the police to identify him as one of the suspects and that defence exhibits from previous proceedings, which were to be used to impeach the witness and 12