Former British millionaire seeks clemency over double-murder

Former British millionaire Krishna Maharaj once lived the high life, but now spends his days swatting flies from his face and talking about the “grave injustice” that landed him behind bars in the US more than 20 years ago.

Maharaj, 68, has exhausted all his appeals in his 1986 double murder conviction and has just one more chance at freedom today when he begins seeking clemency before the Florida Clemency Board in Indiantown.

“I had absolutely nothing to do with it,” Maharaj said this week in a prison interview.

The former importer once owned Britain’s second-largest stable of racehorses and a fleet of 24 Rolls-Royces. Now he is prisoner number 109722 at the Martin Correctional Institution.

“I went from living like a prince to existing like an animal,” said Maharaj.

Maharaj was convicted in the 1986 shooting deaths of a Jamaican father and son in a plush Miami hotel. He was sentenced to 25 years to life for killing Derrick Moo Young and given a death sentence for the murder of the 23-year-old son, Duane.

His death sentence was eventually overturned after 15 years on death row.

A judge then sentenced him to another 25 years to life in prison, bringing his total sentence to 53 years to life, including a mandatory three years for using a firearm in a felony.