G. B. A. Coker, J.S.C. (Delivering the Leading Judgment): When we dismissed this appeal at the hearing on the 28th September, 1972, we stated that we would give our reasons for doing so later, and we now give those reasons. The appellant was charged with and convicted of the murder of one Bernadette Nwanyibunwa Onwuliri at the High Court, Owerri in the East-Central State. It was alleged at his trial that he murdered the deceased at Okpala on the 14th of January, 1971. At the trial of the applicant, a doctor who had performed a post-mortem examination on the body of the deceased, testified to the effect that she was a woman of about 25 years old and was some six months pregnant at the time of her death. He found on the corpse evidence of extensive injuries to the bones of the skull and the face caused by several and separate applications of an instrument like a mortar on the affected parts. There was an eye-witness of the events immediately leading to the death of Bernadette Onwuliri, …