Criminal law – murder –first appeal – matters to be considered in a first appeal – appellant convicted of killing his wife – circumstantial evidence – factors to be satisfied by the court Criminal law – language – omission by the trial court to indicate the language used by witnesses – record showing that the appellant understood and participated in the proceedings – whether the appellant’s constitutional rights were breached 

Criminal Practice and Procedure - trial - trial for murder conducted by two judges in succession - duty of succeeding judge to inform the accused person of his right to recall the witnesses - duty of the succeeding judge to specifically record that the accused had been informed of that right - accused person represented by advocates at the time of trial - advocates not raising the issue of the recall of witnesses - whether the failure to inform the accused of his right and to record it materially prejudiced the accused - Criminal Procedure Code section 201, 200(3), 200(4) 

Criminal law - murder - appeal against conviction and sentence of death - re-evaluation of the evidence - Penal Code section 204

Evidence - identification evidence - second appeal against conviction for robbery with violence and sentence of death - case depending wholly on the evidence of identification at night - doubt arising as to whether the appellants had been positively identified - benefit of the doubt to be resolved in favour of the appellants - whether the prosecution had established its case beyond all reasonable doubt.

Criminal law - robbery with violence - accused persons  assaulting the complainant after a disagreement - accused person charged with robbery with violence, convicted and sentenced to death - whether the facts and evidence supported the lesser offence of assault or causing grevious harm - whether the trial court and the High Court on first appeal had failed to properly direct themselves on the evidence - Penal Code section 296(2)

Constitutional law - language – where trial court’s record failing to indicate the language in which witnesses gave evidence – effect of trial court’s failure to indicate language in which the witnesses gave evidence – whether such proceedings were vitiated - whether a retrial should be ordered - matters an appellate court will consider in deciding whether to order a retrial - section 77 (2) (b) (f) of the Constitution

Criminal Practice and Procedure - evidence of a child of tender years - meaning of 'child of tender age' - procedure in receiving the evidence of a child - duty of  a trial court to carry out a voire dire examination of a child before receiving the child's evidence - how a court is to deal with both sworn and unsworn evidence of a child witness - Oaths and Statutory Declarations Act section 19

Criminal Practice and Procedure - trial - change of presiding judge - where the presiding judge had died after hearing all the witnesses in a trial for murder and after recording all the evidence - trial taken over by a different judge who proceeded to write a judgment based on the evidence recorded by the preceding judge - matters to consider before a judge can act on the evidence recorded by a preceding judge - Criminal Procedure Code section 200

Criminal law - murder - mens rea - malice aforethought - common intention - accused persons having been in a group of persons that was armed and planning to attack the deceased - gang pursuing the unlawful of attacking, killling or maiming the deceased and destroying his property - whether the two accused persons who were members of the group had a common intention to commit the offence of murder - whether the accused had malice aforethought - Penal Code section 21

Criminal Law - robbery with violence - second appeal against conviction and sentence of death - evidence - identification evidence - concurrent findings of the trial court and first appellate court -  Penal Code section 296(2)

Constitutional law - rights of an accused person - right to be brought to court within a reasonable time after arrest - person arrested on suspicion of a capital offence to be arraigned within 14 days unless cause is shown why he was held for longer - computation of time - public holidays and weekend not to be considered in computing the time that an arrested person was held in custody - duty of an arrested person to raise the complaint about his prolonged incarceration early in the trial - Constitution section 84(7)

Criminal law - murder - High Court reducing the charge to manslaughter and sentencing the appellant to 15 years in prison - appeal - Penal Code section 203, 204

Criminal Practice and Procedure - sentencing - mitigation - duty of a court to consider and record mitigation - appellant arguing that the trial court had failed to give him an opportunity to offer a mitigation before pronouncing its sentence after it had convicted him - trial court having failed to consider that the appellant had been in custody for 3 years before the trial - court also failing to consider the issues of provocation and intoxication in arriving at its sentence - Criminal Procedure Code section 215, 216

Criminal law - robbery with violence - rape -  appeal against conviction and sentence - Penal Code section 140,  296(2)

Evidence - identification evidence - standard that a court should apply where a case rests mainly on such evidence