Seven men convicted of killing Grenada’s leader in the 1983 coup that triggered a US invasion strode out of prison on Saturday — the last of 17 who had been sentenced for the crime.
Dozens of relatives cheered and clapped as former deputy prime minister Bernard Coard and six other men emerged from the crumbling 17th century prison where they served nearly 26 years. Former co-defendants took their hands and accompanied them.
Then prime minister Maurice Bishop, four Cabinet ministers and six supporters were dragged before a firing squad and shot dead on Oct. 19, 1983, by members of their own New Jewel movement — followers of Coard who demanded more radical policies.
Six days later, thousands of US troops invaded on the orders of then US president Ronald Reagan, who said he sought to protect American medical students and to sever Grenada’s growing ties with communist Cuba.
US troops arrested the 17 defendants and 14 were initially sentenced to death.
Their sentences were commuted to life in prison in 1991 and the London-based Privy Council, the highest court of appeal for the country, threw out those sentences in February 2007.
At their resentencing, a judge said the prisoners showed remorse and sentenced them to just two more years in prison.
The release is a milestone in the island’s efforts to heal wounds from the revolution, Senator Chester Humphrey said.
“It’s the end of one chapter, not the completion of the book, as Grenada tries to build a future by not living in the past,” Humphrey said.
Humphrey said he expected the men to reintegrate back into society.
Leon Cornwall, for example, became an ordained minister in prison and will work with the Methodist church upon his release, Reverend Tessica Hacksaw said.
Cornwall said the 1983 coup “was regrettable, and something that should never happen again.”
The bodies of Bishop and the 10 men have never been found.
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