Criminal law – murder – appeal against conviction and sentence of death – EVIDENCE - duty of a first appellate court to re-evaluate the evidence and make its own conclusions – how the court should discharge that duty – circumstantial evidence – requirements for conviction in a case depended wholly on circumstantial evidence – whether the appellant’s suspicious behaviour at the scene of the crime, being found in possession of a shirt stained with blood stains matching the blood group of the deceased and the sequence the events supported the conviction - Penal Code section 203, 204

[Ruling] Civil Practice and Procedure – appeal – application to strike out record of appeal – grounds: that the decree contained in the record of appeal was not signed by the Deputy Registrar – whether the record of appeal should be struck out -  Court of Appeal Rules rule 80

Criminal law – robbery with violence – appeal against conviction and sentence of death – first appeal dismissed – second appeal – elements of the offence of robbery with violence – being armed with an offensive weapon, being in company of with one or  more persons, or using personal violence at or immediately after the robbery – the elements are disjunctive so that proving any of them establishes the offence – whether the essential ingredients of the offence had been proved against the appellant beyond any doubt - Penal Code section 296(2)

Criminal law – burglary and stealing  - appeal against conviction and sentence on three counts – first appeal dismissed – second appeal to be confined to matters of law – whether the trial court had erroneously admitted into evidence the report of the ballistics expert when the expert was not personally called to produce it – whether the appellant’s defence had not been critically evaluated – Evidence Act sections 33, 35, 77

Criminal law – robbery with violence – appeal against conviction and sentence of death – first appeal dismissed – second appeal -  Penal Code section 296(2)

Evidence – appeal - evaluation of evidence by an appellate court – right of the accused to know how a first appellate court has gone about re-examining and re-evaluating the evidence of the trial court and to know how the court has dealt with any weaknesses in the prosecution’s case – whether the first appellate court had failed to subject the evidence to scrutiny and therefore arrived at a decision unsupported by the evidence – contradictions in the prosecution’s evidence with regard to the date indicated on the p3 form and the date of the offence – whether such contradiction may be a ground for quashing the conviction – Criminal Procedure Code section 382

Criminal Practice and Procedure – change of trial magistrates – right of the accused to be informed of his right to re-summon witnesses in such circumstances – record of the trial showing no note whether the succeeding magistrate had informed the accused of that right – record nevertheless showing the responses of the accused showing that they wanted the trial to proceed - whether the trial court had made the accused aware of their right - Criminal Procedure Code section 200

Criminal causing grievous harm appeal against conviction and sentence of imprisonment for 3 years first appeal dismissed by the High Court second appeal - Penal Code section 234

Criminal Practice and Procedure submissions procedure for making submissions before a criminal court duty of the court to orally hear the submissions right of the accused to hear the submissions and to clarify any point raised or to object to a point - - whether written submissions are improper for denying the accused person his fundamental right to have the trial conducted in his presence whether the accused could be taken to have consented to the written submission merely because his advocate had adopted that procedure - whether the express consent of the accused should have been obtained - dangers inherent where both the court and counsel make shortcuts to finalise a case compromise on justice whether trial proceedings were a nullity whether a the case should be retried matters to consider in deciding whether to order a retrial - Constitution section 77(2)

[Ruling] – CIVIL PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE - judgment – application to have judgment entered in the terms of the award granted – orders awarded after the matter was referred to arbitration – where the matter is a succession cause – applicable principles – whether the reference of a succession cause to arbitration was proper – whether the applicant can enforce a judgment entered thereof - Law of Succession Act section 97; Civil Procedure Rules Order 45 rule 17(1)

Criminal law – murder – appeal against conviction and sentence of death - Penal Code sections 203, 204

Criminal Practice and Procedure – judgment – form of a judgment – matters which a judgment should contain – judgment merely outlining the evidence of either side in a more or less chronological order and accepting the evidence as a whole without any analysis or comment – alibi defence of the accused rejected without being considered judgment giving no reasons for accepting the testimony of the main prosecution witness – judgment neither making any mention of the assessors or giving reasons why the trial judge disagreed with them - whether the judgment was bad for failing to comply with the Criminal Procedure Code section 169(1), 322(2) – whether the judgment constituted a  fatal irregularity denying the appellants a satisfactory trial – whether the case should be retried.

Criminal Practice and Procedure – assessors – opinion of assessors – trial judge not bound by the opinion of assessors – duty the trial judge to sufficiently explain his reasons where the judge disagrees with the unanimous opinion of assessors -  Criminal Procedure Code section 322(2)

Criminal Practice and Procedure – Court of Appeal bringing to the attention of the Attorney General two matters: the police had showed a lamentable lack of interest in taking action to save the deceased from death; crucial witnesses appeared to have been left out “probably to forestall any successful prosecution” and with hundreds of appeals pending, no convincing reason was given why this appeal was fast-tracked.

Criminal law – murder – appeal against conviction and sentence of death – EVIDENCE – re-evaluation of the evidence by a first appellate court – circumstantial evidence- case depending on circumstantial evidence – test that such evidence must meet in order to form the basis for a conviction - Penal Code sections 203, 204

Criminal Practice and Procedure – assessors – requirement that a murder trial in the High Court should be conducted with the aid of assessors – circumstances or stages of trial in which assessors may be excluded - consequences of conducting a trial without assessors – procedure in a trial within a trial – record of the trial proceedings not showing whether the assessors, who had been excluded during a trial within a trial, had been recalled afterwards – whether the assessors had been excluded from the trial – whether injustice had been caused to the accused – whether the concession statement of the appellant had been properly admitted in evidence - Criminal Procedure Code sections 262, 263, 382