Both men jailed for life for the slaying of James Cyrus Caines are to appeal to the Privy Council to have the murder verdict quashed.

Sheldon Franks -- jailed for life with Teiko Furbert for the 1996 shooting of James Cyrus Caines -- is, like Furbert, to take his case to Bermuda's final court of appeal in London.

Barrister Mark Pettingill, who defended Franks at his Supreme Court trial and appeared for him at a later Court of Appeal hearing, which upheld the conviction, confirmed he would take the case to London himself.

The Royal Gazette revealed on Tuesday that Furbert was to seek leave to appeal the conviction at a hearing in London on May 21.

Mr. Pettingill said yesterday: "I don't know that we will necessarily be seeking leave to appeal on the same day.

"But we have been instructed in this matter and we will be making an application to the Privy Council.'' Mr. Pettingill added: "I will be going personally and it could be that there will be a local Queen's Counsel who will go as well.'' Mr. Caines' mother Sandra Cyrus told the April 1997 Supreme Court trial that her son named Franks as his killer as he lay dying in her arms.

Mr. Caines was shot in the head through the screen door of a house in Pembroke's Curving Avenue in July, 1996.

He staggered hundreds of yards to his home in Union Street before collapsing outside and dying.

Mr. Pettingill said: "My client has always maintained he didn't do it and that he is not guilty.'' He declined to reveal details of the grounds of Franks' appeal.

But he added: "We have the position that we had a ruling on the dying declaration in the Court of Appeal which was controversial.

"That will probably form part of the basis of our appeal to the Privy Council.'' Mr. Pettingill said he did not know when the appeal was likely to be heard.

He said: "Unlike the other guy, we haven't filed anything yet -- but I would hope we would be heard sooner rather than later.'' During the trial, Franks pointed the finger of guilt at his co-accused, insisting Furbert had fired the fatal shot.

But Furbert told the court he had only gone to the house where Mr. Caines was to pick up his pedal cycle.

He did not implicate Franks -- but he told the court that Franks had been standing near the door of the house with two other men when the shot was fired.

The two were both said in court to be drug dealers and members of a back of town "crew.'' Attorney General Elliott Mottley told the jury that that the two blamed Caines for separate thefts from them, including a package of drugs, and that the shooting was a revenge killing.

The two-year-old murder took a fresh twist at the weekend with the discovery of a rusted 9mm handgun and ammunition near the murder house.

The gun used in the Caines killing was never found -- but the bullet which killed him was of the same calibre as the gun and ammunition found last Friday.

A Police spokesman later confirmed that the gun, which was wrapped in plastic and concealed in a grass verge, will be sent to Canada for ballistics tests.