LAW, JUSTICE AND MY
EMOTIONS
As I adjusted my wig on my
natural hair, I sat upright…its judgment time I said to self...boring time, I
murmured out loud. My colleague smirked at my comment. Whoever has sat through
a judgment knows that it takes nothing less than 30 minutes to 1 hour to read
the whole lengthy judgment.
The Hon. Justice started reading
out his judgment…culpable homicide, punishable by death. I looked up for the
first time at the accused person standing at the dock ‘that guy may die soon, I
pondered’ but knowing how hard it is to prove murder, without flipping coins I
already guessed, the prosecution would leave a stone unturned. Yet I listened
on.
By the third page of his judgment, my colleague
was fast asleep. To keep myself busy from doing same, I decided to play
‘candycrush’ at least I am not sleeping, I murmured to self.
The Hon. Justice went on, from
the case of the prosecution to the case of the defense. I listened the best way
I could. Bottom line, the ‘dude’ in the dock had stabbed a man; the man was
rushed to the hospital where he died after two weeks. I felt anger flush
through me. Who gave him the right to take a life, the thought reverberated in
my head, who? Who? Who? The way people just pull knives and stab other human
beings is infuriating!!
My anger had overtaken me and I could feel
myself shaking at this point. Then came the moment we had all been waiting for
‘the judgment’. I looked up, my friend in her deep slumber somewhat woke up at
that exact moment. The court was very quiet, so quiet I could hear my own
breath. I looked at the accused person
once more, I was totally filled with hate, and he wasn’t even cute, I thought
to myself, he should go in for life at the least; too bad I am not the judge. I
finally turned my attention back to the judge.
He averred that it is settled
beyond controversy that to secure a conviction on a charge of murder, the
prosecution must prove:
That the deceased had died.
That the death of the deceased was caused by the accused.
That the act or omission of the
accused which caused the death of the deceased was intentional, with knowledge
that death or grievous bodily harm was its probable consequence.
After reading out the facts, the
Hon. Justice was convinced that the first criterion have been established by
the prosecution.
Moving on to the second criterion,
yes there were two witnesses and also a confessionary statement from the
accused, attesting to the fact that the deceased was indeed stabbed with a
knife by the accused. Nonetheless, the deceased died after two weeks. The
defense had argued that it could have been from negligence by the doctors, or
maybe the deceased had HIV, or cancer, or was already suffering a terminal
illness. Unfortunately the prosecution failed to submit any medical report to
prove cause of death…and therefore invariably, failed to successfully prove the
second criterion.
As those words left the mouth of
the judge, I felt something die inside of me. The defense has won again, I
thought. What nonsense HIV or cancer, I thought vehemently!! He died of the
wound caused by the stab!! I continued blaring in my head. He is totally guilty!!
Feeling powerless, I turned my attention back to the judge.
The Hon. Justice eventually found
him guilty of a ‘paltry’ offence, and then asked the defense if she had
anything to say before passing his sentence. Naturally, she stood up and
started blabbing her allocutus, yeah
right I mumbled, the man he killed had a bright future too, I almost jeered.
The prosecution was called upon after the defense and she had nothing to say.
The Hon. Justice finally passed
his sentence, giving the accused two years imprisonment starting from the date
of arrest and detention which was 2010, so he had in other words served more
than his jail time.
When the judge was done passing
his sentence, the accused person, fell face down in the dock, tears rolled from
his eyes to the dusty floor of the dock. I further heard cries from the gallery
and turned to see his family all crying for joy and holding each other. While I
felt sorry for the family of the deceased, I felt some pang of guilt and a rush
of deep respect for the judge sitting high above me.
The court is not one with emotions.
The judge is and would always be an unbiased umpire weighing at all times,
facts and evidence adduced by both parties in his imaginary scale. Law deals
with facts and evidence. If you want something to go in your favour, you must adduce
enough evidence to sustain the verdict. Even if a judge knows the truth, his
hands are bound by the evidence before him.
That is why people like him,
would be judges while people like me, with high emotions would clearly sit far
back in the bar, until I am able to disassociate emotions from the Legal
system.
Written by:
Umeano Abbey Chima esq
