R. v. Shauyinga Crim. Sass. 195-Iringa-70; 10/5/71; Makame J.

R. v. Shauyinga Crim. Sass. 195-Iringa-70; 10/5/71; Makame J.

The accused was charged with the murder of his wife. The evidence against the accused was purely circumstantial and was to effect that the accused raised an alarm on 30/8/69 and the witnesses who respondent to the alarm found the accused about 60 paces from his house with the deceased lying on a bed. They also found two spears stuck to the ground. The accused told them that he had killed his wife when he was mentally disturbed. There was also evidence from the prosecution witnesses that the accused had been mentally unwell and had lived in the forest. This was corroborated by a medical report from a specialist psychiatrist who was of the opinion that the accused was suffering from chronic Brain Syndrome and that at the time of the alleged killing the accused had a psychotic episode and was of unsound mind. Both gentlemen assessors were of the opinion that the accused was guilty of murder as charged.

Held: (1) “While it is for an accused person to establish the defence of insanity it is enough it he raises a reasonable doubt only, that at the material time it is more likely that not that he was insane; that is, it will do; and the accused has to be pronounced insane if on the evidence the greater probability is that he was insane than that he was sane. In the present case there are the following factors which I am constrained to take into account: While admittedly Eliot Adam said that in the past the accused had not been insane there is other undiscredited Prosecution evidence to the effect that the accused had been mentally unwell and had lived in the forest. There is also the accused’s behaviour after the stabbing which is as open to an interpretation compatible with lucidity as with insanity. It is true the accused seemed to have carried the body to the shamba from the house, but the question is where was he carrying it to any why should he raise the alarm if what he intended to do was to dispose of the body secretly? The tender details the accused saw to are to my mind suggestive of remorse, consonant with the reaction of a man who comes round as it were, after something had irresistibly snapped in his head, and he had done something the significance of which he did not quite appreciate then. I am satisfied that at the material time is possible the accused was insane, though not necessarily mad in the popular sense. I am fortified in this view by the opinion of Dr. Pendaeli the specialist psychiatrist at the Isanga Institution. In his report the doctor said the accused was found to be suffering from chronic syphilis in its late stages, which affliction and most probably affected his brain. He found the accused tense, enxious, at times mildly depressed and occasionally he experienced auditory hallucination. The doctor was of the opinion that the accused is suffering from Chronic Brain Syndrome and that at the time of the alleged killing the accused had psychotic episode and was of unsound mind ……….. Because of the foregoing while I respectfully agree with the gentleman assessors both of whom found that the accused did kill his wife, with genuine respect I am unable to hold, as they did, that when the accused killed the deceased he had malice aforethought. Consequently I find that the accused did commit the act, but by reason of his insanity he is not guilty of the offence with which he is charged.” (2) “I order that the record of the case be reported for order of the Honourable the Second Vice President, the Minister for Justice, and that meanwhile the accused be kept in custody as a criminal lunatic at the Isanga Institution, Dodoma.”