CaseLaw
Peba V. State (1980) CLR 11(a) (SC)
Judgement delivered on November 7th 1980
Brief
Facts
The allegation made by the prosecution at the trial before the High Court was that the appellant killed the deceased - a woman who had been living with him, when he found her lying on the bed of another man. There was no eye witness to the killing but the appellant made a confessional statement to the police after his arrest in which he admitted killing her with a matchet and he gave full account of how the incident came about.
At the time of making the confessional statement the appellant spoke in his vernacular and a translation was simultaneously made into English before the statement was taken down in writing. When appellant gave evidence in his defence he retracted that portion of the statement that alleged that he killed the deceased. His reason for the retraction was that the interpretation of the said portion was faulty and that it did not represent what he said. However the learned trial judge rejected the denials as he was entitled to do.
ASuffice it to say that the appellant appealed to the Federal Court of Appeal against his conviction by the trial court for murder and as no substance was found in the ground of appeal canvassed before the Federal Court of Appeal, the appeal was dismissed.