Parrott V. Government Of The Virgin Islands

Roy Parrott is currently serving a life sentence for a 1976 murder conviction, based on a violation of Virgin Islands territorial law. He is appealing the dismissal by the District Court of the Virgin Islands of his petition for collateral relief under the Virgin Islands habeas statute, S 1303, Title 5 of the V.I. Code. Parrott's claim poses a variation on issues we have been facing when we interpret the 1984 amendments to the Virgin Islands Revised Organic Act. In Parrott's appeal, we must decide whether the Revised Organic Act's changes to the jurisdictions both of the District Court and of the Territorial Court, the local Virgin Islands court, operate to vest jurisdiction solely with the Territorial Court for habeas petitions arising from convictions for violations of territorial law. The District Court answered"no" to this question. We conclude, however, that the correct answer is "yes." We will, therefore, reverse the dismissal of the habeas petition by the District Court and remand this case to it for remand to the Territorial Court for further proceedings.