Judgment
RITA NOSAKHARE PEMU, J.C.A. (Delivering the Leading Judgment): This is an Appeal against the judgment of the High Court of Justice, Owerri Imo State, delivered on the 18th of February, 2013 in Charge No HOW/51C/2011, wherein the Appellant was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death by hanging. SYNOPSIS OF FACTS The Appellant was arraigned before the Court for murder. He pleaded guilty to the Charge, but the Court however, recorded a plea of “not guilty”.
The prosecution had called six (6) witnesses and tendered exhibits, one of which was the confessional statement of the Accused person (the Appellant herein). PW1 had testified that the Appellant called her husband, Augustine Ndukwu on phone and asked him to come home that his house was on fire, the husband left for his home but never came back. The Appellant confessed to PW1 at the Police Station that the 2nd and 7th Accused persons used him to kill Chief Augustine Ndukwu. The Appellant had denied the crime but later made contradictory confessional statements.
The Appellant had testified in his defence in Igbo language as DW4. At the end of the case, the Court below convicted and sentenced the Appellant to death on the strength of his plea of guilty. Dissatisfied the Appellant filed a Notice of Appeal on the 11th day of March, 2013, amended with the leave of Court on the 11th of February, 2021 with four grounds of Appeal. The Appellant filed his brief of argument on the 24th of June, 2021 but same was deemed filed on the 7th of March 2022. It is settled by Philip Ibekwe Esq. The Respondent’s brief was filed on the 21st of February 2022.
It is settled by C. O. Chukwumaeze Esq. The Appellant filed a Reply Brief on the 2nd of March 2022. On the 8th day of June, 2022, the parties adopted their respective briefs of argument. The Appellant proffered three (3) issues for determination from the grounds of Appeal. They are: ISSUES FOR DETERMINATION 1. “Whether the trial Court was right to have convicted and sentenced the Appellant to death on the ground that he pleaded guilty to a capital offence. 2.
Whether in view of the circumstance of this case, the finding that the Appellant stabbed the deceased to death, the conviction and sentence by the trial Court are not altogether unwarranted, unreasonable and unsupported, having regard to the evidence before the Court. 3. Whether the trial Court properly evaluated the evidence adduced before it by the Prosecution and the Appellant before convicting and sentencing the Appellant.
