UNCLASSIFIED
DRAFT
ANNEX B
Type 1 +
From
To:-
Telephone No. Ext.
Department
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN DEPENDENT TERRITORIES:
BELIZE
In Confidence
THE CASE OF DIMAS TEJADA MONROY
DSR 11
1. Dimas Tejada Monroy was convicted in the Belize Supreme Court on 21 May of the murder in September 1978 of Alberto
Pineda Leon and sentenced to death. Both Tejada and Pineda were Guatemalan nationals employed on a cattle ranch in a remote part of Belize. Tejada was chief cowhand; Pineda was
one of those working under him. The murder occured when Tejada became upset at the apparent carelessness of Pineda in not discovering a dead calf, but this was no more than the culmination of a series of incidents which had led Tejada to build up resentment against Pineda to the extent that he was
eventually provoked into shooting him in the back and head with a shotgun.
2.
Tejada's appeal against his conviction was dismissed by the Belize Court of Appeal on 25 July. The case will now be considered by the Governor's Advisory Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy who will advise him whether or not he should commute the sentence. The committee is expected to meet at the end of August. One of the documents before them will be the report of a psychiatrist who has examined Tejada since his appeal was dismissed. At the trial, the defence had tried to make a plea of insanity but the Judge had ruled that the testimony of the doctor called by the defence could not be heard since he was only a General Practitioner and did not qualify as an expert witness. The psychiatrist who has now examined Tejada concludes his report by saying: "I am not at all sure that Tejada Monroy knew that what he was doing was wrong" The Governor has told us that the committee's recommendation is likely to depend on what view they take of this aspect.
Dd 0532000 800M 5/78 HMSO Bracknell
13.
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