News / National
Female murder convict set free
16 Jul 2015 at 08:56hrs | Views
A MUTARE woman on death row for the past five years after being convicted of murdering one Daniel Sithole in cold blood has been set free.
Shylet Sibanda was in 2010 convicted alongside her husband Tongai Zireni Mutengerere and family friend Darlington Nyaungwe, of killing Sithole and was sentenced to death by High Court judge Justice Felistas Chatukuta after failing to find extenuating circumstances to save the trio from the hangman's noose.
But, courtesy of the new supreme law of the country, and through her representatives from the Zimbabwe Women Lawyers' Association (ZWLA), Sibanda approached the Constitutional Court seeking to persuade the court to alter the death sentence to life imprisonment.
But when the matter appeared before the full bench headed by Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku yesterday, Sibanda's lawyer, Advocate Fadzai Mahere, advised the court that she was instead withdrawing the matter following the removal of her client from the death row.
"The withdrawal of the matter emerges from the affidavit filed by the Prosecutor-General's Office. The applicant was removed from death row and is now serving life imprisonment," Mahere said.
Prosecutor-General representative Richard Chikosha confirmed the developments prompting the court to withdraw the matter with no order as to costs.
Sithole's conviction came about after the State proved that on December 16, 2009, Mutengerere, Sibanda and Nyaungwe mooted the idea to kill the late Sithole in order to take over his vehicle which he was hiring out to earn a living.
According to the State case, Mutengerere is said to have used his wife, Sibanda, to call the late Sithole purporting she wanted to hire his truck, but later they lured him to a secluded area where they stabbed him to death.
Sibanda was, however, set to face execution together with another convict Rosemary Margaret Khumalo, who died of natural causes at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison last year.
Khumalo had been on death row for 15 years after being convicted of murder in 1999.
Shylet Sibanda was in 2010 convicted alongside her husband Tongai Zireni Mutengerere and family friend Darlington Nyaungwe, of killing Sithole and was sentenced to death by High Court judge Justice Felistas Chatukuta after failing to find extenuating circumstances to save the trio from the hangman's noose.
But, courtesy of the new supreme law of the country, and through her representatives from the Zimbabwe Women Lawyers' Association (ZWLA), Sibanda approached the Constitutional Court seeking to persuade the court to alter the death sentence to life imprisonment.
But when the matter appeared before the full bench headed by Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku yesterday, Sibanda's lawyer, Advocate Fadzai Mahere, advised the court that she was instead withdrawing the matter following the removal of her client from the death row.
"The withdrawal of the matter emerges from the affidavit filed by the Prosecutor-General's Office. The applicant was removed from death row and is now serving life imprisonment," Mahere said.
Prosecutor-General representative Richard Chikosha confirmed the developments prompting the court to withdraw the matter with no order as to costs.
Sithole's conviction came about after the State proved that on December 16, 2009, Mutengerere, Sibanda and Nyaungwe mooted the idea to kill the late Sithole in order to take over his vehicle which he was hiring out to earn a living.
According to the State case, Mutengerere is said to have used his wife, Sibanda, to call the late Sithole purporting she wanted to hire his truck, but later they lured him to a secluded area where they stabbed him to death.
Sibanda was, however, set to face execution together with another convict Rosemary Margaret Khumalo, who died of natural causes at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison last year.
Khumalo had been on death row for 15 years after being convicted of murder in 1999.
Source - NewsDay
