Rex v Brahim (Criminal Appeal 23-1935.)

Observed later treatment

No later-treatment classification is recorded for this judgment.

Citator coverage is limited to judgments in the Wakilii corpus and source-matched treatment records. Absence of a signal is not an assertion that the case remains good law.

Holding

Conviction for murder quashed and re-trial ordered. The trial court erred by failing to put the accused's statement before the Committing Magistrate into evidence, which contained allegations of provocation. The court held that 'insult' in section 192 of the Tanganyika Penal Code includes verbal insults, and words suggesting impotency might constitute sufficient provocation to reduce murder to manslaughter for an ordinary native. The trial magistrate misdirected himself in ruling that no words in a marital quarrel can justify killing.

Outcome

Conviction quashed and matter remitted for re-trial before a differently constituted court

Facts

The appellant was convicted of murdering his wife. He admitted the killing but stated before the Committing Magistrate that during a quarrel, his wife said to him: 'Go to your mother, I have got another man, X. You a man? What have you done?' He alleged he then became angry and used a knife. This statement was not put in evidence at the trial. The appellant was absent and unrepresented at the appeal.

Issues

1. Whether the statement of the accused before the Committing Magistrate ought to have been put in evidence at trial.
2. Whether verbal insults constitute 'insult' within section 192 of the Tanganyika Penal Code for purposes of provocation.
3. Whether the words used by the deceased could amount to provocation sufficient to reduce murder to manslaughter.

Orders

• Conviction quashed.
• Re-trial ordered before a Court differently constituted.

Rules and key headnotes

Legislation cited (1)

• Penal Code s.192

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