Constitutional challenge cannot bypass an adequate criminal appeal route

A later ruling on unfair jury-selection rules did not entitle Wolda Gardner to pursue a separate constitutional attack on his closed criminal case. On 29 April, the Privy Council dismissed his appeal under Bermuda’s constitutional redress provision.

The decisive point was that an application to reopen the criminal appeal offered an adequate route for his arguments. A demanding legal test and an arguability filter did not, by themselves, make that route inadequate. The Board emphasised the integrity of the ordinary appellate process.

It did not decide whether Gardner could satisfy the reopening test or persuade the criminal court to modify it. The judgment therefore does not mean that later constitutional rulings can never matter to old convictions; it identifies the proper procedural route in this case.

Complete official judgment reviewed, paragraphs 1–39. Bermuda-specific constitutional proviso and appeal procedure. The Board dismissed this constitutional appeal, without deciding the merits of a future reopening application. Later treatment not checked.