Troadio John Gonzalez (born 28 December 1941) is a justice of the

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

Belize Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wate ...

Career

Born in

, Gonzalez received his

Bachelor of Law Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...

from the

University of the West Indies The University of the West Indies (UWI), originally University College of the West Indies, is a public university system established to serve the higher education needs of the residents of 17 English-speaking countries and territories in th ...

Law Faculty in

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate). ...

and

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

, and went on to the

Norman Manley Law School The Norman Manley Law School is a law school in Jamaica. Building and location The Norman Manley Law School is located on the Mona campus of the University of the West Indies, yet it is a distinct and separate institution. Its building, design ...

in Jamaica. He served as Crown Counsel at the Office of the

Director of Public Prosecutions The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) is the office or official charged with the prosecution of criminal offences in several criminal jurisdictions around the world. The title is used mainly in jurisdictions that are or have been members o ...

from 1981 to 1988, Chief Magistrate from 1988 to 1991, and Director of Public Prosecutions from 1991 to 1993. He was appointed as a justice of the Supreme Court of Belize in 1993. He served as acting

Chief Justice of Belize The Chief Justice of Belize is the head of the Supreme Court of Belize. Under Chapter 7 of the Constitution of Belize, the Chief Justice is appointed by the Governor-General on the advice of the Prime Minister. Since the retirement of Kenneth Be ...

from 1999 until

Abdulai Conteh Abdulai Osman Conteh (born 5 August 1945) is a lawyer and politician from Sierra Leone. He is a former vice president of Sierra Leone, who served under President Joseph Saidu Momoh before he was ousted by the military junta in 1992. Conteh later ...

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...

was formally appointed to that position the following year. Gonzalez is believed to hold Belize's record for the longest delay in rendering a judgment in a case: ''DFC v Classic Woods Limited'', which was heard in 1994 but on which he had not yet delivered a judgment by nearly fifteen years later in September 2009. One case over which Gonzalez presided in 2006, the murder trial of Kirk Gordon, would go on to become the last Belizean criminal case to be heard on appeal by the

Judicial Committee of the Privy Council The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) is the highest court of appeal for the Crown Dependencies, the British Overseas Territories, some Commonwealth countries and a few institutions in the United Kingdom. Established on 14 Augus ...

; on 1 June 2010, Belize replaced the Privy Council with the

Caribbean Court of Justice The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ; nl, Caribisch Hof van Justitie; french: Cour Caribéenne de Justice) is the judicial institution of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). Established in 2005, it is based in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. ...

as its court of last resort. The Privy Council reduced Gordon's murder conviction to one of

manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th cen ...

, ruling that Gonzalez'

jury instructions Jury instructions, directions to the jury, or judge's charge are legal rules that jurors should follow when deciding a case. They are a type of jury control procedure to support a fair trial. Description Jury instructions are the set of legal ...

regarding the defense of partial loss of control had wrongly directed them consider to whether a

reasonable person In law, a reasonable person, reasonable man, or the man on the Clapham omnibus, is a hypothetical person of legal fiction crafted by the courts and communicated through case law and jury instructions. Strictly according to the fiction, it is ...

would have felt terror and immediate threat of death, rather than to consider Gordon's actual state of mind.

Retirement age

Though he reached the ordinary retirement age of 65 in December 2006, Gonzalez continued to sit on the bench and hear cases. The

Constitution of Belize The Constitution of Belize is the supreme law of the nation of Belize. It was signed on September 1981 with effect from that date. Structure The Constitution of Belize, Chapter 4 of the Laws of Belize, is divided into a preamble, 13 parts and f ...

allows a judge to continue serving until age 75 if he has been formally reappointed, but Gonzalez had never undertaken this step. This brought into question verdicts he had handed down in 38 criminal cases. After the news about Gonzalez' status came to light in February 2008, he took indefinite leave from his position. The government passed legislation to strip the

Senate of Belize The Senate is one of the chambers of the National Assembly of Belize. It has 13 members appointed for a five-year term by the Governor General of Belize. Establishment and appointment Senators are appointed by the Governor General in the fol ...

of its power to confirm Gonzalez' reappointment, but it was challenged in court. Attorney General

Wilfred Elrington Wilfred Peter "Sedi" Elrington (born 20 November 1948)

in August granted Gonzalez a one year contract to continue to serve as a Supreme Court justice. In June, Elvis Myers, a man to whom Gonzalez had meted out a

life sentence Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...

for murder, launched a challenge against Gonzalez' eligibility to have presided over his trial. Coincidentally, his attorney was Elrington's brother Hubert Elrington.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gonzalez, Troadio 1941 births Living people Chief justices of Belize Directors of Public Prosecutions of Belize University of the West Indies alumni People associated with the Norman Manley Law School