A Handbook for Public Prosecutors

7. Judgments and Sentences

Chapter 7 JUDGMENTS AND SENTENCES What is a judgment? It is the duty of the presiding magistrate to prepare a judgment in every case which he himself has tried. It is, therefore, a province, perhaps, outside the duties of a public prosecutor. However, a public prosecutor must know something about judgments. In a criminal case, a judgment is a reasoned account of the evidence, the law, findings of fact and decision of guilt or innocence of an accused person. To a public prosecutor, therefore, a well-prepared judgment tells him of his own performance; what were the good and bad points in his case. A good judgment, therefore, is a lecture to the public prosecutor and the public in general on the law of evidence, the application and logic of the law and the many human failings by those who gave evidence in the trial. The process of ascertainment of facts from the evidence and findings thereon are contained in a judgment. Section 312 of the Criminal Procedure Act provides that every judgment must, except as otherwise expressly provided, be written by, or reduced to writing under the personal direction and superintendence of, the presiding judge or magistrate in the language of the court, and shall contain the point or points for determination, the decision thereon and the reasons for the decision, and shall be dated and signed by such presiding officer as of the date on which it is pronounced in open court. In the case of a conviction , the judgment must specify the offence which, and the section of the Penal Code or other law under which, the accused person is convicted. In the case of an acquittal, the judgment must state the offence of which the accused person is acquitted and must direct that he be set at liberty. In short, a judgment must set out the point or points for determination, the decision thereon and the reasons for the decision. It must, therefore cover essential ingredients of the offence (see Livingtone v. Uganda, (1972) EA 196; and Charles Izengo v. Republic, (1982) TLR 237; and George Mingwe v. Republic, (1989) TLR 10). Style of writing a judgment Different magistrates have different styles of writing a judgment. There can, therefore, be no hard and fast rule about how it should be formulated so long as it contains the point or points for determination, the decision and reasons for the decision. For what it is worth, I describe here my own way of preparing a judgment. The judgment opens with a brief statement of the offence with which the accused person stands charged and the particulars of the offence. Also included here are the names of the accused. Thereafter, a careful summary of the prosecution’s evidence is done, followed by that of the defence. Although it is a summary of the evidence, care should be taken not to omit any important fact which will be crucial in the decision and reasons for the decision. That done, the next thing to do is to point out the issues or points to be determined . Here it should be made clear as to what is in issue and what is not disputed. In a case of theft, for example, if the accused admits taking the property but denies stealing it, that should be pointed out, and the single question for determination will be whether the taking of the thing in the circumstances amounted to theft or any offence at all. If, however, the accused denies stealing and possession of the article, then the questions for determination will be (a) whether the accused was ever in possession of the article and, if so, (b) whether the possession in the circumstances amounted to theft or some other offence of which the accused could be convicted under the principle of substitution of convictions, or there was no offence committed. When the points for determination have been pointed out, the evidence of both sides is evaluated. Here, discrepancies, corroborated accounts, demeanour , etc. are dealt with. That done, the judgement goes on to set out findings of fact from what have been found in the evaluation of the evidence stating why some facts have been proved and others not proved. What follows next is an analysis of the applicable principles of law, if any, in the case. The judgment goes on to apply those principles to the findings of fact to arrive at a decision. The magistrate concerned will then make his decision and enter...