The court of appeal has upheld a 25-year prison sentence for Lamunu Nighty, who was convicted for the murder of her three day old nephew in 2013 on her own guilty plea by the Gulu High Court, after three justices of appeal found the sentence legal and not manifestly excessive despite remand-period ambiguity.
According to court records, Lamunu was convicted on her own plea of guilty for the offence of murder contrary to sections 188 & 189, (now sections 171 &172) of the Penal Code Act and sentenced to 25 years imprisonment.
The deceased, Kidega Henry, was an infant aged only 3 days, whose mother, Ajok Milly, was married to Opio Morris, Lamunu’s brother.
On May 31st 2013, a misunderstanding arose between Lamunu and Ajok, during which Lamunu alleged that Ajok had called her a witch.
Later that day, Ajok, who was carrying Kidega, passed by Lamunu’s home on her way to hospital, Lamunu saw Ajok wearing local sandals belonging to her younger sister and demanded their return but Ajok replied that Lamunu could collect them from her home.
Lamunu followed Ajok to her home, attacked her, removed the three-day-old Kidega from her and threw him to the ground, after which she continued fighting Ajok. The baby sustained severe injuries and died the following day, with the post-mortem examination disclosing, among other injuries, a ruptured spleen and head injury.
Death resulted from haemorrhagic shock due to internal bleeding arising from the ruptured spleen and brain injury, Lamunu was arrested, charged and convicted on her own plea of guilty of the offence of murder and sentenced to 25 years imprisonment.
In her appeal, she cited two grounds, on ground one that the learned trial Judge (Hon. Justice John Eudes Keiterima) erred in law and fact when he sentenced the appellant to a manifestly harsh and excessive sentence of 25 years’ imprisonment thus occasioning a miscarriage justice.
Lamunu further wanted court to find that the learned trial Judge erred in law and fact, when he imposed an illegal sentence without taking into account the period spent on remand thus occasioning a miscarriage of justice.
However in a ruling dated, in a ruling dated September 17th delivered by three justices including Justice Cornelia Kakooza Sabiiti, Justice Hellen Obura and Justice Jesse Byaruhanga Rugyema, noted that the sentence was passed on 21st November 2013 before the decision in Rwabugande llloses vs Uganda (supra) was delivered on 3rd March 2017.
“This implies that the learned trial judge was bound to follow the sentencing regime of the pre-Rwabugande period which only required him to indicate that he had taken into account the period the convict (appellant) had spent on remand. The need for an arithmetic deduction while taking into account the period a convict had spent on remand was not necessary” the justices noted.
While passing their judgement the justices, noted that even though they found that the trial judge had erred when he stated; “for the avoidance of doubt the duration of the sentence to run from 21st 2013′, implying that the sentence of 25 years imposed was less the period spent on remand, they couldn’t accept the submissions of Lamunu’s lawyers that the sentence imposed was illegal for failure by the learned trial Judge to take into account the period the appellant spent on remand.
“lt is therefore our finding that the sentence of 25 years’ imprisonment imposed on the appellant is legal and thus ground 2 fails” the justices ruled.
The justices further noted that upon taking into account both the aggravating and mitigating factors and the range of sentences for the offence of murder both cited and others un cited during the appeal hearing, found that the 25 years’ imprisonment that was imposed on Lamunu, falls within the range of sentences for cases of a similar nature and it is therefore not harsh or excessive as contended by her lawyers.
“Therefore, ground 1 also fails. ln the premises, we do not find merit in this appeal. We accordingly dismiss it and maintain the sentence of 25 years’ imprisonment imposed on the appellant” the justices ruled.
