Today 25th day of October,2014 a Twenty Seven years old Iranian woman Rayhaney
Jabbari was convicted of murder by hanging after she was found guilty of
murdering Mortesa Abdulahi Sarbandi in year 2007, five years after the murder.
She pleaded not guilty as she was only trying to defend herself from being
raped when she mistakenly killed the victim.
Prominent figures in Iran,
international society had earlier appealed the decision for stay of execution
but the execution was carried out on the ground that the suspect had the intention
of killing her victim by buying a new knife used in the killing in the market
two days earlier before the killing, also through the text she sent to her
friend. Let’s see if Rayhaney was guilty.
We shall be discussing Murder, its
elements and defences under the law. The elements of murder are, there victim
of the crime must have died as a result of an act or omission of the suspect
and these death must be unlawful killing.
The general rule is that no one
shall cut short the life of fellow human being except God and the state in case
of capital offences that attracts capital punishment, whoever cut short the
life of another must be killed not because this will bring the person back to
life but to deter future offenders from committing such crime, in a situation
where this occur what are the defences available to the suspect from being
killed. The defences under murder are enormous but we shall limit this discussion
to the most popular defences often used by suspects.
Provocation is one of this defences but for it to stand the onus is
on the suspect to justify this defence; the fact that you easily get angry will
not suffice. In Burke V. R(1978) where a religious girl had an argument on a
dance floor with a pest who annoyed her on the stairs, she leaves to find a
knife and stabs him, No provocation she was
found guilty. Maybe defence of
provocation would have availed her if she had reacted immediately not an excuse
though.
Self defence, this must be a reasonable force to defend himself/herself
from attach for this defence to stand. In R V. Rose where the defendant had
shot dead his father whilst the latter was launching a murderous attack on the
defendant’s mother she was acquitted of murder on the ground of self defence. The court usually measure the attack by the
victim to that of the suspect to determine if this will suffice, using cutlass
to defend oneself against a tiny stick will not suffice.
Insanity as defined under Section 28 of the Nigeria Criminal Code,
anyone that is mentally unstable cannot be found guilty in the case of Daniel M’Nagten
where the suspect tried to kill the Britain Prime minister was discharged and
acquitted on the ground that he was insane at the time , the onus is on the
suspect to prove that he/she was insane at the time. See why you should avoid a mad person or anyone you suspect not to be
mentally stable.
Conclusively, the fact that there
are defences that a suspect may rely on is not enough reason to commit crime. Let’s
stay off crime,Law is no respecter of anyone.
Thanks for reading.
Oyenike Alliyu-Adebiyi LLB(hons)BL
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