What is Prosecutor’s Fallacy and Can It Help Elmer Nah?

Former police corporal Elmer Nah is awaiting trial for the brutal New Year’s Eve 2022 murders of siblings Jon, David, and Vivian Ramnarace in Belmopan. Despite being arrested, charged, and remanded for the killings, Nah maintains his innocence. But what if he’s not the real killer? Could investigators have rushed to judgment based on surveillance footage from that night? Earlier today, defense attorney “Dickie” Bradley discussed the concept of a prosecutor’s fallacy and how it might work in Nah’s favor.

 

On the phone: Richard “Dickie’ Bradley, Attorney-at-law

“I recently read in one of those legal articles about prosecution fallacy.  You may have heard that I was sharing with the citizens of Belize, some who don’t quite take it in the correct light, but there is a strong possibility that the unhappy police officer who is charged for that double, triple murder in Belmopan.  The decision to arrest and charge him falls right into this principle of prosecution fallacy.  Somebody hollered, “Oh, that da da person.  Dat da da police soh and soh and soh…” And that’s it, no further investigation to see the possibility.  The family says they have all kinds of videotapes, he was at a function with over a dozen persons.  Dehn noh wahn hear that, somebody looked at the video and said, oh dat da Nah , da he dat, dah soh ih walk, da soh ih run.  That’s it, and now it is turning out that it is highly likely that they were dead wrong.  No pun on the word dead.  If he is exonerated in a court of law, I must say that there is nothing else he can do but to sue and not accept small money either, because mein, that is really an egregious error and a failure to give a person the opportunity to say, “We are charging you, we are going to charge you.”  And for him to say, which he has been saying from the very outset, “It cannot be me. It can’t be me. I was with persons all night.  We have videos.  Dehn noh wahn interview nobody, dehn have wahn videotape which it turns out now is likely to show that it is somebody entirely different who was that murderous, evil person that did that crime.”