Case No.:

AC.CP.157-1956

Court:

Major Court Confirmation

Issue No.:

1961

Principles

·  Evidence-Confessions-Corroboration required when confession retracted in murder

1 a soldier, w arrested and confessed to the investigation Shawish and later before the magistrate that he and other soldiers shot a northerner. A’ is trial for murder he pleaded not guilty and retracted his confession. He was convicted although there w no evidence corroborating the confession.
Held: Where a prior confession is retracted at trial, accused cannot be convicted of murder on his confession, unless the value and truth of the confession is adequately proved by corroborating evidence of:
(1) the general story of the alleged crime, the corpus delicti; and
(2)  the criminal participation of the accused.

Judgment

(MAJOR COURT CONFIRMATION)

SUDAN GOVERNMENT v. MARIAKA BERE

AC.CP.157-1956

M. A. Abu Rannat C.J. August 4, 1956:- This case has been tried under the Criminal Courts Emergency Procedure (Standard Regulations, 2955). Therefore, both the finding and sentence must be confirmed by your Excellencies.

The accused was a soldier No. 59646 in Battalion No. 1 at Torit. He was found in possession of 23 rounds of ammunition No. 7 and 7 spent rounds. He was arrested in a forest near Yei, and brought before the police on June 18, 1956. He made a confession to the investigating Shawish that he and other soldiers shot a northerner who was wearing white shirt and shorts—see pages 2—3 of Case Diary. He was taken immediately before a magistrate of the 2nd Class and there he also made a confession—page 4 of the Case Diary.

At his trial on July 7, 1956, accused pleaded not guilty and retracted his confession—this appears on page of the Trial Record. He was convicted by the court under Penal Code, s. 251, and sentenced to death.

There is not a single witness to show that he in fact took part in the shooting of a northerner. A confession if proved satisfactorily to be voluntarily and genuine, is legal and sufficient proot of the guilt of the accused without corroboration, but ordinarily the practice is to require some support for a confession, some corroboration from facts established outside the confession, and reasonable consistency of the surrounding circumstances of which there is no doubt. The fact that the accused was a mutineer or that he was found in possession of some spent rounds of ammunition is not alone sufficient to establish that he in fact shot a human being. Accused explained that he spent nearly all this long time in the jungle, and that he shot some wild game for the purpose of providing food for himself. He did not plead that there was inducement or threat, but a well ground conjecture, reasonably passed upon circum stances diclosed in the evidence, is sufficient to exclude a confession.

This prisoner retracted his confession. The retraction of a confession does not cancel the confession, but it puts the court on inquiry as to its value, its voluntary character, and the probability of its being true. Prudence and caution require any court not to rely on a confession without independent corroborative evidence. The corroboration should not only confirm the general story of the alleged crime but must also connect the accused with it. In a serious charge like murder we never convict a person on an uncorroborated confession.

I therefore recommend that the confirmation of the finding an sentence be refused.

The accused was a soldier and as such he committed a military offence.

will make a direction, subject to your Excellencies’ approval, that he be handed over to the military authorities at Juba, and tried by a military tribunal under the military law. On the evidence before us he committed no offence under the Penal Code.