BREAKING: Death penalty quashed

A Gweru man who was sentenced to death in 2015 for murdering his step-daughter was recently removed from death row after the Supreme Court found that the High Court had erred at law in coming up with the punishment.

Supreme Court judge Justice Anne-Marry Gowora, sitting with Justices Elizabeth Gwaunza and Susan Mavangira, unanimously removed Samson Mutero from the death row and remitted the case back to the High Court for fresh sentencing.

The bench found that the trial judge erred by disregarding Section 337 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act (which was then still a valid law) and opted to sentence Mutero in terms of Section 48(2) of the new Constitution.

Section 337 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act, according to the judgement, placed on the accused person the onus to allege and prove the existence of extenuating circumstances in his case, warranting his escape from death penalty.

However, in terms of the new supreme law, the State has to allege and prove aggravating circumstances warranting the imposition of death penalty on an accused person.

The discord resulted in the High Court judge opting to disregard Section 337 of the Criminal procedure and Evidence Act and sentencing Mutero to death basing on Section 48(2) of the Constitution.

Justice Gowora ruled that the death sentence was invalid.

Details to follow....