News / National
Death row inmate's trial fails to take off
21 Jan 2013 at 14:02hrs | Views
The High Court bail application trial for a convicted murderer who was sentenced to death by hanging by High Court Judge Justice Cheda on the 29th of January 2004 failed to take off after it emerged that vital court records including the postmortem for the deceased, the state and defence outlines are missing.
The death row inmate Bvumai Machena appeared before Justice Felistus Chatukuta expecting a bail determination ruling, but the matter had to be deferred to the 31st of this month following indications from Richard Chikosha of the Attorney General's office that there were vital papers missing.
Bvumai Machena (36) who was 27 at the time was convicted for murdering Edward Gazura aged (44) after it was proved that he stabbed the deceased to his death after accusing him of letting his cattle stray into his field destroying his crop.
Though the accused pleaded not guilty to murder tendering a plea to culpable homicide, the prosecution proved beyond reasonable doubt that the accused had stabbed the deceased to his death with an okapi once on the left side of the chest.
After Bvumai's conviction and subsequent condemnation, his matter was supposed to go for an automatic review because of the nature of the sentence but this according to the state was not done.
High Court Judge Justice Felistus Chatukuta granted the request by the state for the matter to be postponed to the 31st of January when it is expected that vital missing records will have been secured.
The death row inmate Bvumai Machena appeared before Justice Felistus Chatukuta expecting a bail determination ruling, but the matter had to be deferred to the 31st of this month following indications from Richard Chikosha of the Attorney General's office that there were vital papers missing.
Bvumai Machena (36) who was 27 at the time was convicted for murdering Edward Gazura aged (44) after it was proved that he stabbed the deceased to his death after accusing him of letting his cattle stray into his field destroying his crop.
Though the accused pleaded not guilty to murder tendering a plea to culpable homicide, the prosecution proved beyond reasonable doubt that the accused had stabbed the deceased to his death with an okapi once on the left side of the chest.
After Bvumai's conviction and subsequent condemnation, his matter was supposed to go for an automatic review because of the nature of the sentence but this according to the state was not done.
High Court Judge Justice Felistus Chatukuta granted the request by the state for the matter to be postponed to the 31st of January when it is expected that vital missing records will have been secured.
Source - zbc
