Freedom!!Man jailed with murder case acquitted

After seven long years of battling murder charges, a middle aged man has every reason to smile after he walked back to freedom following  the court acquitted him over insufficient evidence.

High Court Judge William Musyoka said there were only two witnesses who testified before the prosecution closed their case over frequent adjournments.

The prosecution was granted a last adjournment on September 9 after the accused lamented that the State had failed to avail the witness.

George Otieno Gare was alleged to have murdered Mokta Andambi on May 20, 2011 at Lukoye Estate Mumias Sub-county.Boniface Nyubile who was the first witness told the court he was called to identify the body for autopsy at Kakamega County Referral Hospital.

The court heard that the deceased had wounds over the scalp.Nyubile further testified that the neck had rope marks.According to the post-mortem the court heard the cause of death was cardio-respiratory arrest following strangulation.

Justice Musyoka noted that the prosecution had not proven the key elements to support murder charges against the accused.For a charge of murder to stand, the Judge said the prosecution must confirm there was death, cause of death, accused person’s role in the death and whether there was malice.

He noted that although there was evidence that indeed the deceased died, the witnesses could not explain the role Otieno played.

The Judge further stated that the in criminal cases, the burden of proof in criminal cases is beyond reasonable doubt which had not been established.He ordered Otieno to be released.

Do you think Mr Otieno should be compensated for the years he wasted behind bars?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *