Wakilii

Rex v Gutosi (Criminal Appeal No. 163 of 1947)

East African Court of Appeal · [1947] EACA 45 · 1947 Appeal Dismissed AI-generated summary ↓ Download Pin to watchlist Add to matter
Jurisdiction
Uganda
Case Type
Criminal appeal from conviction for murder by the High Court of Uganda
Decision
Appellant's conviction for murder upheld

Observed later treatment

No later-treatment classification is recorded for this judgment.

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AI-generated summary. This summary was generated by AI from the full text of the judgment. It may contain errors or omissions—always read the source judgment before relying on it.

Holding

The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal and upheld the murder conviction. The court held that the appellant's statement obtained through two interpreters was inadmissible because the interpreters were not called as witnesses, but this error caused no prejudice as there was ample other evidence establishing guilt. The defences of provocation and drunkenness were rejected as unsupported by the evidence.

Outcome

Appellant's conviction for murder upheld

Facts

The appellant was convicted of murder. He had speared the deceased because he believed he was about to be arrested for a previous spearing incident in which he had wounded another man following a drunken quarrel at a beer party. The appellant made a statement to a Superintendent of Police through two interpreters concerning the offence. At trial, the statement was admitted as evidence but neither interpreter was called as a witness. The appellant raised defences of provocation and drunkenness. The trial judge and two assessors found him guilty of murder.

Issues

  1. Whether the appellant's statement obtained through two interpreters who were not called as witnesses was admissible as evidence.
  2. Whether the appellant's conviction for murder should be upheld given his defences of provocation and drunkenness.

Orders

  • Appeal dismissed.
  • Conviction for murder upheld.

Rules and key headnotes

Evidence — Admissibility — Hearsay — Statements obtained through interpreters
A statement made by an accused person through interpreters is inadmissible as evidence where the interpreters are not called as witnesses, because the person recording the statement can only speak to what the final interpreter told them, making it hearsay.
Criminal Law & Procedure — Appeal — Harmless error — Admission of inadmissible evidence
The admission of inadmissible evidence will not result in the quashing of a conviction where the error occasioned no prejudice to the appellant and there is ample other evidence to establish guilt.
Criminal Law & Procedure — Murder — Defence of drunkenness — Test
Drunkenness is not a defence to murder where the accused's own evidence shows that he was not so drunk as not to know what he was doing.

Full judgment

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

Rex v Gutosi (Criminal Appeal No. 163 of 1947) [1947] EACA 45 (1 January 1947)
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.