Wakilii

Gikera and Others v Reginam (Criminal Appeals Nos. 419, 420 and 421 of 1955)

East African Court of Appeal · [1955] EACA 360 · 1955 Conviction Quashed AI-generated summary ↓ Download Pin to watchlist Add to matter
Jurisdiction
Uganda
Case Type
Criminal appeals from conviction for murder by the Supreme Court of Kenya sitting in Emergency Assize
Decision
Convictions quashed and sentences set aside. Appellants remanded in custody pending new trial.

Observed later treatment

No later-treatment classification is recorded for this judgment.

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Holding

Time is of the essence in the offence of murder. Where the Penal Code provides that a person is not deemed to have killed another if death does not occur within a year and a day of the cause of death, a trial judge cannot convict on an information alleging murder in July when in doubt whether the deceased was alive in September. The rule in R v Dossi was wrongly applied. Convictions quashed and new trial ordered.

Outcome

Convictions quashed and sentences set aside. Appellants remanded in custody pending new trial.

Facts

The three appellants were charged with murdering the deceased between 1 July 1954 and 31 July 1954. They made voluntary statements admitting participation in the killing. Three prosecution witnesses testified the murder occurred in July 1954. However, one prosecution witness, a relative of the deceased, testified he saw the deceased alive in September 1954. The assessors found the appellants not guilty. The trial judge accepted that both sets of witnesses were honest but did not make a definite finding as to when the murder occurred. Relying on R v Dossi, the judge believed time was not an essential ingredient of murder and convicted all three appellants despite the uncertainty about the date of death.

Issues

  1. Whether time of murder is an essential ingredient of the offence of murder.
  2. Whether the trial judge erred in convicting the appellants on an information charging murder in July 1954 when evidence suggested the deceased may have been alive in September 1954.
  3. Whether the rule in R v Dossi applies to murder charges where the Penal Code prescribes a time limitation.

Orders

  • Appeals allowed.
  • Convictions of murder quashed.
  • Sentences of death set aside.
  • New trial ordered.
  • Appellants remanded in custody pending new trial.

Rules and key headnotes

Murder — Essential Elements — Time as an Ingredient
Time is of the essence in the offence of murder where the Penal Code provides that a person is not deemed to have killed another if death does not take place within a year and a day of the cause of death.
Murder — Conviction — Particulars of Offence
A trial judge cannot convict an accused of murder on an information charging the offence occurred in July when the judge is in doubt whether the deceased was alive in September, without amendment of the information.
Penal Code — Year and a Day Rule — Application to Murder
Where statute provides that a person is not deemed to have killed another if death does not occur within a year and a day of the cause of death, this temporal limitation makes time an essential element of the offence that must be proved.
Witness Credibility — Conflicting Evidence on Date
Where prosecution witnesses give conflicting evidence on the date of an alleged murder, a trial judge must make a definite finding on when the offence occurred and cannot rely on the principle that time is not of the essence to avoid resolving the conflict.

Legislation cited (1)

  • Penal Code s.210

Cases cited (1)

  • R v Dossi (13 Criminal Appeal Reports 158)

Full judgment

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The original judgment as reported. Read the original PDF before relying on any passage.

Gikera and Others v Reginam (Criminal Appeals Nos. 419, 420 and 421 of 1955) [1955] EACA 360 (1 January 1955)
Source: this page presents Wakilii’s issue analysis and metadata for a publicly reported Ugandan judgment. Any AI-generated summary is marked as such. Judgment text is sourced from the Uganda Legal Information Institute (ulii.org). Wakilii is not affiliated with ULII.