Results.
11 judgments found.
|
|
|
| October 1987 |
|
|
Court granted bail pending appeal after weighing sentence length, appeal prospects, applicant's bail conduct and personal standing.
-
Criminal procedure — Bail pending appeal — factors: length of sentence, prospects/merits of appeal, conduct on bail during trial, risk of interference, sureties, surrender of passport.
|
28 October 1987 |
|
Credibility findings and independent physical evidence supported conviction; accidental discharge and provocation defences rightly rejected.
-
Criminal law — murder — evaluation of eyewitness credibility — corroboration by physical evidence (cartridge cases) — accidental discharge versus deliberate shooting — rejection of provocation defence — appellate review of trial judge's factual findings.
|
20 October 1987 |
|
An acquittal entered without a verdict is a nullity; adjournment discretion must serve the broader interests of justice.
-
Criminal law — Adjournment — Court discretion — Broader interests of justice; Criminal procedure — Verdict required before recording conviction or acquittal — Acquittal without verdict is nullity; Appeal — Power to set aside defective acquittal and order continuation of trial
|
19 October 1987 |
|
Juvenile offender’s 15-year sentence set aside; three years' probation ordered under probation officer supervision.
-
Criminal law — Sentencing of juvenile offenders — Welfare report and time served — Substitution of custodial sentence with probation — Probation officer's supervisory discretion.
|
7 October 1987 |
|
Appellate court reduced a nine-year consecutive sentence to five years concurrent, balancing guilty-plea credit against systematic large-scale theft.
-
Criminal law — Sentencing — Theft by servant — Consecutive versus concurrent sentences — Credit for guilty plea and first-offender status balanced against systematic, large-scale theft — Appellate substitution of sentence.
|
7 October 1987 |
|
Appellant’s firearm-based aggravated robbery conviction quashed for lack of expert proof of a firearm; conviction substituted for use of an offensive weapon.
-
Criminal law — Aggravated robbery — Identification evidence and identification parade — Admissibility and reliability of eyewitnesses — Proof of firearm — necessity for expert evidence where firearm elevates offence to capital crime — Substitution of conviction and sentence.
|
6 October 1987 |
|
Court upheld first appellant’s murder conviction on corroborative admission; quashed second appellant’s conviction for lack of corroborated identification.
-
Criminal law — murder — identification evidence — reliability and need for corroboration of a witness who had been drinking and delayed reporting — corroboration by inculpatory admissions — application of proviso to save conviction.
|
6 October 1987 |
|
Trial misdirection rendered a false-information conviction unsafe; a separate repeat stock-theft sentence reduced to the mandatory seven years.
-
Criminal law — false information to public officer — public mischief — burden of proof — inadmissible requirement for independent corroboration of defence witnesses — misdirection — unsafe conviction
-
Criminal procedure — appellate review — proviso to s.15(1) Supreme Court of Zambia Act — when not to apply
-
Property crime — stock theft — subsequent offence — mandatory minimum sentence — appellate reduction where no aggravating circumstances
|
6 October 1987 |
|
Trial within a trial required to decide voluntariness of statement; unwitnessed warn-and-caution statement can be admissible.
-
Criminal law — Confession and admissions — Voluntariness — Trial within a trial required where voluntariness or forced signing is alleged; warn-and-caution statements need not be witnessed to be admissible; sufficiency of evidence for murder conviction.
|
6 October 1987 |
|
Appeal allowed: provocation reduced murder to manslaughter where appellant used a knife immediately after being struck.
-
Criminal law — Provocation — Whether taking a weapon immediately at hand constitutes cooling-off — Reduction of murder to manslaughter; self-defence excluded; sentence for manslaughter involving a knife.
|
6 October 1987 |
|
Manslaughter is an inherent alternative to murder; conviction and five-year sentence were properly affirmed.
-
Criminal law — murder and manslaughter — lesser/alternative verdicts; requirement of plea; sentencing — first offender — appropriateness and absence of shock.
|
6 October 1987 |