Wakilii

Rex v Pengaunusu (Criminal Appeal No. 185 of 1942)

East African Court of Appeal · [1943] EACA 11 · 1943 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 Tanganyika
Decision
Conviction for murder upheld; appeal dismissed

Observed later treatment

No later-treatment classification is recorded for this judgment.

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Holding

The Court held that intoxication did not negate murderous intent where the accused killed the deceased by shooting him with an arrow. The evidence of alcohol consumption was inadequate to establish that the accused was so intoxicated as to be incapable of forming intent. While the inference of murderous intention flows more readily where a deadly weapon is used and a motive is established, each case must be considered on its own facts. The appeal was dismissed.

Outcome

Conviction for murder upheld; appeal dismissed

Facts

The accused killed the deceased by shooting him with an arrow. The motive appeared to be that the deceased had made advances to a woman named Ndeu, whom the accused expected to inherit as his brother's widow under native custom, but she refused to go to him. The accused claimed he had consumed pombe (local alcohol) at five separate places on the day of the killing. He admitted in evidence that he was sober at 3 p.m. and stated he killed the deceased because he was annoyed, aided by drink, not out of revenge. The trial court convicted him of murder, finding insufficient evidence that intoxication prevented formation of intent.

Issues

  1. Whether the accused's intoxication prevented the formation of murderous intent under Section 14(4) of the Penal Code.
  2. Whether the use of a deadly weapon (arrow) and established motive were sufficient to infer murderous intention despite claimed intoxication.

Orders

  • Appeal dismissed.

Rules and key headnotes

Murder — Intoxication — Formation of Intent — Section 14(4) Penal Code
Where the question arises as to the effect of intoxication on the intention of an accused person, each case must be considered on its own facts.
Inference of Intent — Use of Deadly Weapon — Motive
The inference of a murderous intention flows more readily in a case where a deadly weapon is used and still more readily where in addition a motive has been established, but the mere fact of the use of a deadly weapon may not in every case be conclusive.
Intoxication Defence — Burden of Proof — Adequacy of Evidence
To establish that an accused was so intoxicated as not to have formed murderous intention, there must be adequate evidence before the court as to the quantity of drink consumed and its effect on the accused, taking into account all the circumstances of the case.

Legislation cited (1)

  • Penal Code s.14(4)

Cases cited (1)

  • Meakin's case (7 C. & P. 297)

Full judgment

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

Rex v Pengaunusu (Criminal Appeal No. 185 of 1942) [1943] EACA 11 (1 January 1943)
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.