I al­ways re­mem­ber the first day I met Karl Hud­son-Phillips, QC. I was re­as­signed from the Port-of-Spain Mag­is­trates Court to the Port-of-Spain High Court, which was based at that time in the Red House. The year was 1980.

I knew who Karl Hud­son-Phillips was, but I nev­er met him be­fore that day in the Red House. He was rep­re­sent­ing a man on tri­al for mur­der. From the pros­e­cu­tion's ev­i­dence, the odds were stacked against Hud­son-Phillips. At the end of each ses­sion of the tri­al, the QC would come across to the press ta­ble and ask our opin­ion. Well, I al­ways told him he would lose; but his client was ac­quit­ted.

That was the be­gin­ning of a long friend­ship with the es­teemed QC. There were many times when the QC would in­vite me to his cham­bers to dis­cuss cas­es. Al­though he had this bril­liant mind, he al­ways want­ed a lay­man's view, and in my case, a re­porter's think­ing.

Den­nis David­son

In 1987, I was cov­er­ing the ar­rest in Or­lan­do, Flori­da, of want­ed in­sur­ance ex­ec­u­tive Den­nis David­son. Po­lice had war­rants for David­son's ar­rest for al­leged vi­o­la­tion of the for­eign cur­ren­cy laws of T&T. Be­fore they could ex­e­cute the war­rants, David­son fled to the Unit­ed States. He was ar­rest­ed in Or­lan­do for break­ing a red light. When the US au­thor­i­ties checked, they re­alised there was an in­ter­na­tion­al war­rant for David­son's ar­rest.

I was despatched to Or­lan­do by Therese Mills, who was ed­i­tor of the Guardian at the time. The State sent along Hud­son-Phillips and Rangee Dols­ingh to seek its in­ter­est in the mat­ter. David­son even­tu­al­ly waived his rights and agreed to come to Trinidad to face the charges. At the end of the day, he walked free.

Ja­maat al Mus­limeen

Three years lat­er, mem­bers of the Ja­maat al Mus­limeen stormed the Par­lia­ment, TTT, and Ra­dio Trinidad in an at­tempt to over­throw the NAR Gov­ern­ment. When the dust cleared, 114 Ja­maat mem­bers were charged with mur­der, trea­son and oth­er of­fences. Hud­son-Phillips was cho­sen to lead the pros­e­cu­tion in the crim­i­nal cas­es. Dur­ing that time, an al­leged amnesty doc­u­ment sur­faced and that took prece­dence.

The in­sur­gents filed a con­sti­tu­tion­al mo­tion and a writ of habeas cor­pus seek­ing their im­me­di­ate re­lease be­cause they were the ben­e­fi­cia­ries of an amnesty.Af­ter two years, the in­sur­gents were freed and Hud­son-Phillips was dis­ap­point­ed. He had a clear-cut crim­i­nal case and nev­er had the chance to pros­e­cute it.

Mau­rice Bish­op

For Hud­son-Phillips, the biggest tri­al in his 55-year-old le­gal ca­reer was pros­e­cut­ing the 19 peo­ple charged with the mur­ders of Grena­di­an Prime Min­is­ter Mau­rice Bish­op and mem­bers of the Peo­ple's Rev­o­lu­tion­ary Gov­ern­ment dur­ing that bloody coup in Oc­to­ber 1983. Hud­son-Phillip led the pros­e­cu­tion against Bernard Coard and oth­ers dur­ing the tri­al and ap­peals.

The 19 were found guilty and sen­tenced to death. Their sen­tences were even­tu­al­ly com­mut­ed to life im­pris­on­ment and af­ter sen­tenc­ing re­views, all the guilty men were freed.We have lost a le­gal lu­mi­nary and a true pa­tri­ot. I won't go as far as Chalk­dust and say that "Ah fraid Karl." I would say: "Ah re­spect­ed Karl," and the le­gal pro­fes­sion has lost a great man.

Karl Hud­son-Phillips–rest in peace.

Fran­cis Joseph

For­mer crime re­porter for the Guardian