The new High Court Judge in Bo, Justice Alhaji Momoh Stevens, on Monday, 15 November 2017 sentenced Abu Bakarr Rahmandan Jalloh to life imprisonment. Jalloh was found guilty of Manslaughter.
The accused pleaded not guilty and was tried by the Judge without a jury.
In the case of the Prosecution, two witnesses testified. The first prosecution witness (PW1), Mohamed Ahmed Lahai, is a Detective Police Constable of the Southern Regional Criminal Investigation Department. PW1 said he identified the accused before the Court. He said on the 30th August 2015, he received a transfer case and enquiry file of an allegation of Murder from Gondama Police Post.
PW1 said he and colleagues visited the scene of crime at Gondama, while the commanding officer at Gondama Police Post identified the deceased. A postmortem was carried out at the Bo Government Hospital.
On the 31 August 2014, PW1 said that he obtained a voluntary statement from the accused. The accused made a confessional statement indicating that he stabbed Mohamahed Gbao in his stomach following an argument and a fight that resulted in the death of Mohamed Gbao.
The second prosecution witness, Dr. Sheku Kargbo, a retired Medical Officer, conducted the postmortem examination. He concluded that the stab wound led to the death of Mohamed Gbao. Dr. Kargbo pointed out that the stab wound was 3cm in length on the left lobe of the liver and bleeding into the abdominal cavity resulted in the death of Mohamed Gbao.
The findings of the second prosecution witness (PW2) substantiated the confessional statement made by the accused person that he stabbed Mohamed Gbao resulting in his death. The PW2 suggested the wound would was from a sharp implement and again this buttressed the accused statement.
In his judgment, the High Court Judge said, “I submit legally that the law of proportionality has been defeated in favour of the accused person. You cannot compare the threat of a stick to that of the knife.
In the commencement of the Defence case led by J. Amandu and later M.S. Kallon, he told the Court that he has no witness.
According to the High Court Judge, “I therefore withdraw this file for Judgment. The legal position in our jurisprudence is thus: a confession is admissible as long as it was made voluntarily and not a consequence of an improper threat or inducement of a temporal nature made or held out by a person in authority. It is clear to me that the confessional statement made by the accused person was voluntarily. The accused has taken the law into his own hand and he ended up destroying a life. I submit that the prosecution has proved its case beyond reasonable doubt as was stated in the celebrated case of Woolmington vs DPP 1935 AC 462. The accused is guilty as charged for the offence of Manslaughter. The accused person is sentenced to life imprisonment.
AK/16/11/17
By Aruna Kamara In Bo
Friday November 17, 2017.
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