Ex-AG Ramesh’s brother dies after 38 years in Miami prison

Kris Maharaj, brother of former attorney general Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, SC. - Photo courtesy Wikipedia

KRIS Maharaj, brother of former attorney general Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj, SC, has died in prison.

Maharaj was serving time for the murder of two business associates at a Miami hotel room in 1986 and served 38 years in prison.

He was 85.

In a statement, Maharaj said the death of his brother Kris was a sad loss not only to him but to their entire family.

“Kris always maintained his innocence.

“Based on the information he gave me at the time when he was charged for the offences, I formed the opinion that he was innocent. In my conversations with him during the period of time he was incarcerated and during my visits to see him in the prison, I was further convinced that he was innocent.

“I witnessed the trial in Miami and I realised that all the requisite evidence which should have been led before the jury was not produced to the court.

“All efforts, thereafter, to fight that conviction and to get a new trial failed.

“He was, however, successful in getting a ruling from a judge that he was innocent. The US Appeal Court however ruled that the evidence of innocence was not enough to free him. He was successful in getting the death sentence commuted to life imprisonment.

“It is unfortunate that those who were responsible for his first trial did not take steps to have all the relevant evidence put before the jury, That error led to him not being able to get a second chance at a retrial to produce all of the evidence.

“He found this legal battle to assert his innocence for approximately 37 years and during that period of time. He continuously maintained his innocence."

Maharaj’s pro-bono attorney Clive Stafford Smith of the UK said on X on August 5, that Maharaj died in the prison hospital.

“Immensely sad: 1 pm ET Kris Maharaj passed away in the hospital after 38 years fighting injustice.”

Another post read, “Marita braves the new world without Kris, making me breakfast this morning as a distraction.”

Sky News quoted Maharaj’s widow, Marita, as saying she was "devastated that he died alone in that horrible place.

"I promised Kris in 1976 that we would be together until death us do part...

"I want him brought back to the UK for burial as the last place he would want to be is where he was falsely charged with murder.

"Then I will devote the rest of the time that God allows me to clearing his name, so I can go to meet him in heaven with a clear conscience that I have done my best for him," Sky News reported.

Born in Trinidad, Maharaj moved to England in 1960. In 1987, he was convicted of murdering father and son Derrick and Duane Moo Young in a Miami hotel room.

In 2002, his death sentence was overturned and commuted to life after he had spent 17 years on death row.

In 2019, a judge ruled that with the help of the anti-death penalty lobby Reprieve, co-founded by Stafford Smith, he had proved his innocence, but a US Court of Appeal ruled the evidence of his innocence was not enough to free him.

In 2020, Reprieve described Maharaj as a millionaire because of his business acumen.

“Krishna is a British citizen, born in Trinidad on January 26, 1939, when it was still subject to British rule. He moved to England in 1960 without a penny to his name.

“After a period of time as a van driver, he secured a bank loan to set up a business importing tropical fruit, and his acumen make him a millionaire in short order. Britain’s restrictive pre-EU trade practices, where large fruit importers could trample on the smaller companies, prompted him to invest half of his time in Florida in the late 1970s.”

He also owned racehorses and luxury cars in the UK before travelling to Florida with his wife to buy a retirement home.

Reprieve also quoted a statement from Sir Peter Bottomley, the longest-serving member of the British parliament, who said he met Maharaj in prison and had “seen the overwhelming evidence that he is innocent. I gave up my place at the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, to attend his post-conviction hearing in 1997.”

Sky News also quoted Maharaj four years ago during a prison visit: “When they found me guilty, I passed out, I fainted. I just couldn't believe you could be found guilty (of) something you didn't do – murder."

The UK news outlet also quoted Stafford Smith as saying Maharaj’s death was devastating for his wife, whom he described as a “unique spouse,” standing by her husband for 38 years.

"She did not just believe her husband to be innocent but knew it.

"We will certainly fulfil her wish and his, that is, to continue to exonerate him for this crime that he patently did not commit."

The prosecution in Maharaj’s case said in December 1986, he arranged a meeting with the elder Moo Young at the DuPont Plaza Hotel for the repayment of money.

Moo Young turned up at room 1215 with his son Duane. Maharaj is then said to have appeared with a gun from behind a door. An argument resulted, and Maharaj allegedly shot Moo Young dead. The prosecution said Mahaaj then took the son, Duane, taken upstairs and shothimj.

Maharaj insisted he was framed for the murders. He claimed he was suing Moo Young for money he owed to him. Maharaj had an alibi but was still charged with the murders.

Police found Maharaj’s fingerprints in the guest room where the shootings occurred. Maharaj said he was there for a meeting, but had left before the Moo Youngs were killed. Nineteen fingerprints found at the crime scene have never been identified, according to the defence motion.

Maharaj’s lawyers said evidence suggested the murders were committed by former members of a Colombian cartel. A motion filed by his attorneys in 2014 said a “Colombian drug cartel member confirmed that the Moo Young murders were committed at the behest of Pablo Escobar.”

“The Moo Youngs were laundering money for the Colombian cartels,” the defence motion said. “This is what precipitated their murders.”

An ex-cartel member confirmed that “Maharaj was not involved in the murders of the Moo Youngs, and that they had to be eliminated because they had lost Colombian drug money,” according to the defence motion.

In 2014, the UK New Statesman magazine published a statement from Maharaj’s wife.

She said on October 16, 1986, she went to a Denny’s diner in Miami for dinner.

“I was very happy, people were telling jokes. My life was as beautiful as it could ever be. I had a lovely husband – I don’t think you could get a better one than Kris. I had everything I needed. Maybe I had never really had a proper worry in my whole life until that evening.

"When I came out, a short while later, my life was essentially finished. The first thing I remember, as we sat at the table, was that someone appeared with a gun. I later learned that the people running the restaurant called the police because they thought we were being assaulted or robbed.

“We were, in a way: I was being robbed of a husband. The man with the weapon was a police detective. He took Kris away and accused him of two murders.”

She said Derrick Moo Young and his son had been shot earlier in the day.

“We knew them, of course. Derrick had done some work with us, though we were not on good terms, as he was not an honest man.

|"But I knew then – and I know now – that Kris could not have done the crime. It’s not just a matter of who he is, and how he hates even the sight of blood. I was with Kris that day, right around 11 o’clock. We were miles to the north of Miami. Half a dozen other people could confirm that he was nowhere near the Dupont Plaza, let alone in Room 1215 when the murders took place.”

In that statement, she said she intended to visit her husband for his birthday on January 26.

“I’ll go to see him, but it won’t be much of a celebration. I have been waiting for him to come home for 27 years, three months and 10 days (that’s a total 9,965 days and nights),” she said in 2014.

“I miss everything about him. In my small cottage, I never sit down for a meal without laying out a place setting for Kris. I always think that he might walk in the door. I left the Christmas dinner table untouched for three weeks, as I hated the thought of yet another Christmas gone by without him.

"I pretend to myself that Kris is travelling. When I have five minutes on the phone with him in the evening, I pretend to myself that he is talking to me from a trip, not from a cell.”