A British businessman who has been imprisoned in Florida for the past 27 years for a double murder he has always claimed he did not commit has been given the chance to argue his innocence.



Judge William Thomas of Florida’s 11th judicial circuit court in Miami on Wednesday ordered an evidentiary hearing on the case, to be held in the week of 10 November. The court date amounts to the best chance in almost three decades for Krishna “Kris” Maharaj to secure his freedom, or at least be granted a retrial.

Maharaj, 75, was sentenced to death in 1987 for the murder of his business partner Derrick Moo Young and Young’s son Duane in the Dupont Plaza Hotel in downtown Miami the previous year. His attorneys intend to call more than 50 witnesses and present almost 500 documents at the evidentiary hearing in an attempt to persuade the court that he was the victim of an elaborate plot to frame him for the murders, and that the Youngs were actually killed on the orders of a Colombian drug cartel.

Maharaj has been represented for the past 20 years by Clive Stafford Smith of the not-for-profit group Reprieve and Miami lawyer Benedict Kuehne. The legal team intends to present evidence at the November hearing to show that the Trinidad-born Briton was set up by witnesses who were involved in narcotics trafficking and who perjured themselves in the original trial.



“We stand on the cusp of being able to exonerate Kris Maharaj,” Stafford Smith said in a statement. “When the prosecution takes a close look at the evidence that we have developed, it will be clear that Kris should never have been tried for this crime in the first place. This is such a clear case of injustice that the real question should be how fast the state of Florida can release Kris.”

The lawyers hope to call witnesses who will give Maharaj a watertight alibi, as they would testify that he was 30 miles away from the Dupont Plaza hotel at the time of the murders. Other evidence will be directed towards proving the allegation that the Youngs were caught up with the Medellin drug cartels and involved in money laundering when they were killed.

The next challenge facing Maharaj’s legal team will be persuading state funding bodies to provide the financial aid needed to bring so many witnesses to Miami for the hearing.