Al­most eight years af­ter five men were sum­mar­i­ly ex­e­cut­ed by po­lice of­fi­cers near their Laven­tille homes, the State has been or­dered to pay their fam­i­lies over $4 mil­lion in com­pen­sa­tion.

In a re­cent judg­ment, High Court Judge Mar­cia Ay­ers-Cae­sar or­dered the com­pen­sa­tion for the fam­i­lies of Mechack Dou­glas, Sha­keem Fran­cois, Shaun­dell St Clair, Nicholas Bark­er and Kudiem Phillip as she up­held an as­sault and bat­tery and mis­fea­sance in pub­lic of­fice case against the Of­fice of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al.

The men’s rel­a­tives claimed that on Oc­to­ber 25, 2018, then 22-year-old Dou­glas was lis­ten­ing to mu­sic and play­ing cards with a group of friends be­hind one of their homes at Up­per Whar­ton Street, Trou Macaque Road, Laven­tille.