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| Saturday, 1 November 2003 |
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Death sentence set aside by CA The Court of Appeal varied the sentence of death passed on two accused in a murder case to one of 8 years rigorous imprisonment and fines of Rs. 25,000 each after holding that the evidence pointed to sudden provocation placing the offence under culpable homicide not amounting to murder. The Bench comprised Justices Chandradasa Nanayakkara and Jagath Balapatabendi. The judgement by Justice Nanayakkara stated: "The two accused-appellants who were indicted with the murder of one Seelaratne, along with four other accused were convicted of murder and sentenced to death by the learned High Court Judge of Kandy on 25th October, 2001. The other accused who were indicted along with the accused-appellants were freed of all the charges levelled against them. The accused-appellants were also acquitted of other charges preferred against them. As the learned Counsel for the accused-appellants submitted the incident which led to the death of the deceased had occurred when the deceased tried to intervene in a fight which had ensured between the 3rd accused who was acquitted and several others. As the counsel had pointed out it is apparent from the evidence, the incident had occurred on the spur of moment with no evidence of premeditation or pre-plan on the part of the accused-appellants. This position is also buttressed by the police evidence which indicates that the injuries inflicted on the deceased were with a piece of wood broken off a nearby tree at the moment, the incident took place. The State Counsel who is in agreement with these submissions of the learned Counsel for the accused-appellants concedes that on the basis of the totality of the evidence transpired in the case the conviction for murder cannot be sustained. He states that he has no objection to conviction for culpable homicide not amounting to murder on the basis of sudden fight being substituted in its place. Accordingly the accused-appellants are convicted of culpable homicide not amounting to murder on the basis of sudden fight under Section 297 of the Penal Code. In regard to the punishment while the state has called for heavy custodial sentence on the basis the attack on the deceased was totally unprovoked while the counsel for the accused-appellants has called for leniency in the matter of sentence. Having considered the submissions made by both Counsel in regard to the sentence we impose a term of 8 years' rigorous imprisonment on each accused-appellant. In addition we impose a fine of Rs. 25,000 on each accused-appellant in default of which 1 year's rigorous imprisonment. Dr. Ranjit Fernando with Sandamali Munasinghe and Ranmalie Jayawardene appeared for the accused-appellants. Senior State counsel Dappula de Livera appeared for the Attorney General. |
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