An integral part of the adjudication process is the exercise of discretion. It is done judiciously. Whim, caprice, impulse, irrationality, excitability, emotion, and all the other negative urges or passions of that nature have no role. There are many instances when the court is called upon to exercise its discretion. But it is mostly in sentencing, in criminal matters, that that function is so pronounced. Ordinarily the doctrine of stare decisisensures that like cases are treated alike. In appropriate situations, a precedent set in one case should be followed in all other subsequent cases of a similar nature. But this... More
On 26 April 2017 the appellant, after a full trial, was convicted in the magistrate’s court of defeating or obstructing the course of justice in contravention of s 184(1)(e) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, Cap 9:23 (“the Code”). That provision reads: More
1.1. This record of criminal proceedings was referred to this court ostensibly in terms
of theMagistrates Court Act, [Chapter 7:10], the Magistrate being of the view that only the High Court has the power to bring into operation that portion of a sentence which it (i.e. High Court) suspended in a previous matter. More
The deceased suffered from a grossly distended abdomen. This was a condition that she had endured for five to eight years. It was a swollen stomach, the result of an abnormal cyst. The doctor said at its expansive worst the lump spanned a staggering thirty centimetres. She was heavily deformed. Her body was emaciated. More
The accused was unrepresented. He was convicted on his own plea of guilty to stock theft as defined in s 114[2][a] of the Criminal Law [Codification and Reform] Act, [Cap 9:23] [“the Criminal Law Code”]. He stole one heifer and exchanged it for a bicycle. The heifer was subsequently recovered. The court found no special circumstances. It imposed the mandatory minimum sentence of nine years imprisonment. The matter has now come up on automatic review in terms of s 57 of the Magistrate’s Court Act, [Cap 7:10]. More
