{{Short description|British businessman convicted of murder (1939–2024)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2022}} {{Use British English|date=May 2013}} {{Infobox criminal | name = Krishna Maharaj | birth_name = Krishna Nanan Maharaj | image_name = Krishna Maharaj.jpg | image_size = | image_caption = Prison mug shot of Maharaj | birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1939|1|26}} | birth_place = Diamond Village, Victoria County, Trinidad and Tobago | death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|2024|8|5|1939|1|26}} | death_place = Florida, United States | citizenship = British<br>Trinidadian | other_names = Kris Maharaj | conviction = First degree murder, kidnapping<ref name=InmateDetail>[http://www.dc.state.fl.us/ActiveInmates/inmateaction.asp?DataAction=GetInmate&DCNumber=109722 "Florida Department of Corrections: Inmate Population Information Detail – Krishna Maharaj"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923213014/http://www.dc.state.fl.us/ActiveInmates/inmateaction.asp?DataAction=GetInmate&DCNumber=109722 |date=23 September 2015 }}, Retrieved 6 February 2010.</ref> | conviction_penalty = Death; commuted to life imprisonment | conviction_status = Deceased | occupation = Businessman | spouse = Marita Maharaj | mother = Dolly Nanan Maharaj | father = Nanan Maharaj | relatives = Ramesh Maharaj (brother)<br>Roopnarine Rambachan (brother-in-law) | children = }}
'''Krishna Nanan Maharaj''' ({{IPA|hi|kɾiʂɳaː naːnənə məɦaːɾaːdʒə|pron}}; 26 January 1939 – 5 August 2024) was a British Trinidadian businessman. In 1987 he was convicted by a Florida, U.S., court of the double murders of Chinese Jamaican businessmen Derrick Moo Young and his adult son Duane Moo Young, and was sentenced to death. Maharaj always denied committing the murders, and according to the human rights organisation Reprieve, the case of Krishna Maharaj was "an epic miscarriage of justice".<ref name=PleaCrist>[http://www.reprieve.org.uk/press/2008_06_05krismaharaj/ "Kris Maharaj, an innocent Briton imprisoned in the US for 22 years: plea for clemency denied by Governor Crist"], Reprieve, 5 June 2008. Retrieved 9 July 2012.</ref>
Although Reprieve claimed<ref>{{Cite web|title=Kris Maharaj|url=https://reprieve.org/uk/client/kris-maharaj/|access-date=2020-06-28|website=Reprieve|language=en|archive-date=2 May 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230502090933/https://reprieve.org/uk/client/kris-maharaj/|url-status=dead}}</ref> that on 13 September 2019, Federal Magistrate Judge Alicia M. Otazo-Reyes made a legal finding that Maharaj had proven his innocence by "clear and convincing evidence" and that "no reasonable juror could convict him" but ruled that this was not sufficient for Maharaj to be set free, their claim is false. In <em>Maharaj v. Florida Dept. of Corrections</em>, No. 1:17-cv-21965 (S.D. Fla.),<ref>{{Cite web | title=Maharaj v. Florida Department of Corrections, 1:17-cv-21965 – CourtListener.com | url=https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/6656241/maharaj-v-florida-department-of-corrections/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241213174646/https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/6656241/maharaj-v-florida-department-of-corrections/ | access-date=2025-11-25 | archive-date=2024-12-13}}</ref> on 13 Sept. 2019, MJ Otazo-Reyes only ordered an evidentiary hearing.<ref>{{cite web | title=CM/ECF - Live Database - FLSD | url=https://ecf.flsd.uscourts.gov/doc1/051021202311?caseid=507179 }}</ref> On 11 Sept. 2020, MJ Otazo-Reyes recommended that his <em>habeas</em> petition be denied,<ref>{{Cite web| title=Case No. 17-2196 - Krishna Maharaj v. Florida department of corrections | url=https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flsd.507179/gov.uscourts.flsd.507179.127.0.pdf | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241213174803/https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flsd.507179/gov.uscourts.flsd.507179.127.0.pdf | archive-date=2024-12-13}}</ref> and on 30 Nov. 2020, District Judge Jose Martinez affirmed that recommendation,<ref>{{Cite web| title=Case Number: 17-21965-CIV-MARTINEZ-OTAZO-REYES - Krishna Maharaj, vs. Julie Jones, et al. | url=https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flsd.507179/gov.uscourts.flsd.507179.133.0.pdf | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241213174803/https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flsd.507179/gov.uscourts.flsd.507179.133.0.pdf | archive-date=2024-12-13}}</ref> writing in part: {{blockquote|With this in mind, the Court must also dispel Petitioner’s notion—or insistence, rather— that the Eleventh Circuit’s permission to file a second or successive petition constitutes a finding that no reasonable jurist could find Petitioner guilty—i.e., that its permission amounts to a declaration of Petitioner’s innocence. This is not so. For example, the Eleventh Circuit stated: {{blockquote|Mr. Maharaj has sufficiently alleged a Brady violation: he learned in 2014 that Mejia—an individual who resided in close proximity to the murder scene and who apparently was involved with the cartel—was under criminal investigation of the Moo Young murders, a fact that the prosecution or the police knew but did not disclose.}} 11th COA Order Permitting Successive Petition, ECF No. 63-1 at 5. This statement, however, merely means that Maharaj has made a threshold showing; it is not a finding that a Brady violation indeed occurred. The Eleventh Circuit highlighted this point, stating “’[a]s usual nothing about our ruling here binds the district court, which must decide every aspect of the case fresh, or in the legal vernacular, de novo.’” Id. at 6 (quoting In re Chance, 831 F.3d 335, 1338 (11th Cir. 2016)). This includes—as the Eleventh Circuit clarified—“the merits” of Maharaj’s Brady claims. Id. at 7.}}
== Background == Maharaj was of Indo-Trinidadian descent and was the brother of Ramesh Maharaj, former Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago. He was also the brother of Indra Rambachan (née Maharaj), who is married to National Award-winner lawyer Roopnarine Rambachan.{{Citation needed|date=March 2026}}
== Charge and detention == According to the prosecution, in December 1986<ref>Ovalle, David, [https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article3922282.html "For family in 1986 Miami murder case, another loss"], ''Miami Herald'', 23 November 2014.</ref> Maharaj arranged a false meeting with Derrick Moo Young in the DuPont Plaza Hotel, in order to demand Moo Young repay money that he had fraudulently taken from Maharaj's relatives in Trinidad. Derrick Moo Young turned up at room 1215 together with his son Duane. Once inside the room, Maharaj is said to have appeared with a gun from behind a door. An argument resulted, and the father, Derrick Moo Young, was allegedly shot to death by Maharaj. The prosecution stated that the son, Duane, was then taken upstairs in the suite and shot by Maharaj.
In 1997, a Florida court overturned the death sentence.<ref name=MercePlea>[http://www.reprieve.org.uk/press/2006_10_13maharajclemencyappeal/ "Mercy plea by innocent Brit imprisoned for 20 years in U.S."], Reprieve, 13 October 2006. Retrieved 9 July 2012.</ref> In 2001, almost 300 British politicians, church leaders and judges wrote a letter to the then Governor of Florida, Jeb Bush, asking for a retrial. The letter stated that there were "astonishing flaws" in the case against Maharaj. Among those signing the letter were Lord Goldsmith, then Attorney General for England and Wales and Northern Ireland, Lynda Clark, then Advocate General for Scotland, Charles Kennedy, then Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Ken Livingstone, then Mayor of London, and Nicholas Lyell, former Attorney General for England and Wales and Northern Ireland.
The governor denied him a retrial; Maharaj was instead re-sentenced to life imprisonment in 2002.<ref name=MercePlea/>
In 2006, the British human rights organisation Reprieve made an appeal to Governor Jeb Bush for clemency on Maharaj's behalf, pointing out that the jury had heard from none of Maharaj's alibi witnesses, who would have put him 25 miles away at the time of the murder; that the prosecution's star witness had changed his story several times; and that evidence had emerged since the trial that the murder victims were involved in money laundering and had links to drug traffickers, and that there were a number of alternative suspects with strong motives, which had not been considered at the time.<ref name=MercePlea/> The appeal was denied.
In 2008, Reprieve made a second appeal for clemency to the then Governor of Florida, Charlie Crist, but this appeal was also denied.<ref name=PleaCrist/>
On 24 April 2014, Judge William Thomas, from the 11th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida, Miami, allowed Maharaj's lawyer to present witnesses during an evidentiary hearing.<ref name=Maharaj-CNN>Patterson, Thom, [https://edition.cnn.com/2014/07/04/justice/maharaj-evidence-hearing-death-row-stories/ "Ex-millionaire: I was framed for murders ordered by Escobar"], CNN, 13 December 2014. Retrieved 11 December 2014.</ref><ref name=Maharaj-miamiherald>Ovalle, David, [http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article1963344.html "Judge to allow hearing for British citizen convicted in 1986 Miami double murder"], ''Miami Herald'', 24 April 2014. Retrieved 11 December 2014.</ref> On 14 November 2014, Henry Cuervo, a former US Drug Enforcement Administration Agent, told a court that ex-hitman Jhon Jairo Velásquez Vásquez had confessed to him that Pablo Escobar had arranged the hit on the Moo Youngs. Cuervo said that Velásquez wanted to clear his conscience and had asked Cuervo to testify on his behalf. He also submitted an affidavit from Velásquez – a cartel assassin known as "Popeye" who was recently released from prison in Colombia, where he is reviled as one of the country's most infamous killers.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Luscombe|first1=Richard|title=Briton Kris Maharaj 'framed' for Florida killings, claims Pablo Escobar's ex-hitman|url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/nov/13/kris-maharaj-pablo-escobar-hitman-hearing|accessdate=13 July 2017|work=The Guardian|date=13 November 2014}}</ref>
On 4 April 2017, the US 11th Circuit Court of Appeals granted a hearing based on evidence pointing to the involvement of Pablo Escobar's Medellín Cartel in the killings of which Maharaj had been convicted. The court said that the additional witnesses had presented "compelling" accounts that "independently corroborate one another's" and that "[a]ll five individuals' stories reflect that the Moo Youngs were killed by the cartel."<ref>{{cite news|title=Krishna Maharaj gets hearing after new claims surface in 1986 Miami murders|url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/apr/04/krishna-maharaj-case-1986-miami-murders-pablo-escobar|accessdate=13 July 2017|agency=Associated Press Press, Miami|date=4 April 2017}}</ref>
Maharaj died on 5 August 2024, at the age of 85.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Gilbody Dickerson |first1=Claire |title=Kris Maharaj, who spent 38 years in Florida prison despite judge finding him innocent, dies |url=https://news.sky.com/story/kris-maharaj-who-spent-38-years-in-florida-prison-despite-judge-finding-him-innocent-dies-13191774 |access-date=6 August 2024 |work=Sky News |date=6 August 2024}}</ref> His body was flown to the United Kingdom, where his wife lives in the town of Bridport in Dorset.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-08-20 |title=Kris Maharaj: Body of man who died in Florida jail to return to UK |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cg58z33z64vo |access-date=2024-08-27 |website=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref> His funeral was held on 27 August 2024 in West Bay.<ref>{{Cite web |date=6 August 2024 |title=Kris Maharaj: British businessman dies in prison despite US judge finding him innocent |url=https://www.itv.com/news/2024-08-06/kris-maharaj-british-man-dies-in-prison-despite-us-judge-finding-him-innocent |website=ITV News}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *Lester Holloway, 3 June 2012: [http://cllrlesterholloway.wordpress.com/2012/06/03/25-years-on-krishna-maharajs-extraordinary-case-will-not-be-forgotten/ "25 years on, Krishna Maharaj’s extraordinary case will not be forgotten"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120611032517/http://cllrlesterholloway.wordpress.com/2012/06/03/25-years-on-krishna-maharajs-extraordinary-case-will-not-be-forgotten/ |date=11 June 2012 }}. Retrieved 9 July 2012 *[https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/1884290.stm "Millionaire Briton's 15 years on Death Row"], BBC News 28 March 2002: Retrieved 9 July 2012. *[https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/6938440.stm "Miami Briton 'should be freed'"], BBC Newsnight 9 August 2007. Retrieved 9 July 2012 *Ben Bryant, [https://www.vice.com/en/article/british-man-imprisoned-for-florida-murders-framed-by-drug-lord-pablo-escobar-ex-hitman-claims/ "British Man Imprisoned for Florida Murders ‘Framed’ by Drug Lord Pablo Escobar, Ex-Hitman Claims"], ''Vice'', 14 November 2014 *[https://reprieve.org.uk/case-study/krishna-maharaj/ "Kris Maharaj"], ''Reprieve'' case study
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Maharaj, Krishna}} Category:1939 births Category:2024 deaths Category:20th-century British businesspeople Category:British people convicted of murder Category:British people imprisoned in the United States Category:British people of Indian descent Category:British people of Trinidad and Tobago descent Category:British prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Category:British prisoners sentenced to death Category:People convicted of kidnapping Category:People convicted of murder by Florida Category:Prisoners sentenced to death by Florida Category:Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Florida Category:20th-century Trinidad and Tobago businesspeople Category:Trinidad and Tobago emigrants to the United Kingdom Category:Trinidad and Tobago people convicted of murder Category:Trinidad and Tobago people of Indian descent Category:Trinidad and Tobago people imprisoned abroad Category:Trinidad and Tobago prisoners sentenced to death Category:Trinidad and Tobago prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment