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Peoketsi v The State (CA 21 of 1984) [1984] BWCA 25 (4 December 1984)
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.RTF of original document
IK THE COURT 0? APICAL OF 30Ta.vAIiA
Court of Appeal CA 21 of 1984
In the matter of:
TiSISASG PEOKETSI
Appellant
vs.
THE STATE
Appellant in person
Mr. Z. Kakhwade for the State
CORAM: I. A. MAISZL3 J.F. L. 3. BARON J.A. N. MURRAY A.J.A.
J U D G M E N T
BARONt JA.
The appellant in this case was convicted of murder. The circumstances very shortly were that he was in a bar, he got involved in an argument with another man in that bar, and this argument
developed into a fight. Seeing this the deceased, who was a friend of the appellant of approximately the seize a^e, namely about 19, tried to separate the two men and the appellant promptly turned on the deceased and stabbed him with a knife
which he oust have taken from his pocket for this purpose.
The learned trial judge rejected any question of self defence and he rejected that there had been provocation which would have been
sufficient to reduce the offence from murder to manslaughter. He accepted however that there were extenuating circumstances, namely the youth of the appellant, the fact that the killing was done in the heat of the moment, and that the appellant had taken drink. He imposed
2
a sentence of 9 years imprisonment.
In ay view the learned trial judge was correct to find the appellant guilty of murder and he was correct also to find extenuating circumstances, I an of the opinion however that he did not attach sufficient weight to those circumstances. I think that this offence,
if one can put it in this way, is in the range of the least serious of the offences amounting to murder in which a knife is used. We have sadly the very common occurrence of people in a bar who have had too much to drink, of a fight starting, and suddenly a knife emerges
and somebody dies, I would be the last person to minimise the seriousness of offences involving lethal weapons of this kind. However,
taking all Lhe circumstances to which I have referred into account, and bearing in mind that the appellant is a very young man, I take the
view that a sentence of 9 years is quite disparate. In my view the offence warrants a sentence of 6 years and I would allow this appeal to that extent, set aside the sentence and substitute a sentence of 6 years imprisonment.
L. S. BAROK J.A.
I agree
I, A, MAISEL3 J.F,
*•
• /(.' <•' (
<
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I agree
H. KURRAY J,A.
Dated this 4th day of December, 1984 Lobatse.
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