SOSPETER MOI ABURIL & 2 ORS V. REPUBLIC

JUDGMENT

1. On June 4, 2008, the three appellants were each convicted on two counts of robbery with violence contrary to section 296 (2) of the Penal Code and one count of causing grievous harm contrary to section 234 of the Penal Code.

2. Upon the said conviction, the trial court sentenced them to death in respect to the two counts of robbery with violence and to serve a 10 years’ imprisonment for the offence of grievous harm, the latter two sentences being held in abeyance.

3. Their first appeal against both conviction and sentence was unsuccessful on conviction but as regards sentence, the High Court held;

   “As touches the sentences the honourable trial Magistrate pronounced a death sentence in count one, another death sentence in count two and 10 years jail sentence in respect to count three. In our view the sentences as they stand are wrong for being impractical and illegal. A prisoner who has been sentenced to death, and assuming it were to be executed, cannot be available thereafter to under…