Several church leaders are endorsing the move by the head of the Peace Management Initiative, Bishop Herro Blair, to seek state pardon for former Detective Constable Carey Lyn-Sue who has been sentenced to six months in prison on a charge of perverting the course of public justice.

Blair told The Gleaner yesterday that he has written to Governor General Sir Kenneth Hall asking that he officially forgive Lyn-Sue.

The ex-policeman was sentenced on Monday after confessing that he fabricated a statement against a man in a murder case.

"I fully support Bishop Blair's position," said Reverend Conrod Pitkin of the Faith Temple Assembly of God in St James.

Decided to tell the truth

In making the confession in the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate's Court, Lyn-Sue had said he decided to tell the truth because he had become a Christian.

Pitkin, however, said he respected the decision of the resident magistrate in the sentence against Lyn Sue. "We are just saying that justice should be tempered with mercy," Pitkin said.

Pastor Junior Headlam of the Phoenix Avenue Church of God of Prophecy in St Andrew, agreed. "In view of what is to be accomplished in terms of teaching a person a lesson for doing something wrong, by virtue of his confession, it would appear that this man has learnt his lesson," said Headlam.