Three justices of the Court of Appeal; Fredrick Egonda-Ntende, Margret Tibulya and Moses Kazibwe Kawumi, ordered the release of Arach Joel of Oyam district on the ground that the sentence that had been imposed on him by High Court Judge Winnifred Nabisinde were manifestly harsh based on the crime he had been accused of.
The Court of Appeal has released a man who had been sentenced to imprisonment for the rest of his life on two cases of manslaughter and attempted murder.
Three justices of the Court of Appeal; Fredrick Egonda-Ntende, Margret Tibulya and Moses Kazibwe Kawumi, ordered the release of Arach Joel of Oyam district on the ground that the sentence that had been imposed on him by High Court Judge Winnifred Nabisinde were manifestly harsh based on the crime he had been accused of.
According to court records, Arach was convicted by the High Court on his plea of guilty, on December 17th 2013, on two counts of manslaughter and one count of murder. The record show that on February 13 2011 at Awich village in Omach parish, Oyam District Arach caused the death of Ogoga Richard and Teddy Akullo and attempted to kill Omara Peter.
The record shows that Arach had quarrelled with his wife in their house which forced her to leave the home with her baby. Arach followed her on the bicycle with a knife threatening to kill someone. However, he returned shortly after and got involved in a verbal exchange with Ogoga Richard, his brother.
As they were still quarrelling, Arach suddenly removed the knife from his waist and stabbed Ogoga on the upper part of the stomach causing his intestines to come out. Omara Peter who was also a brother to Arach, was on his way to church when he saw Arach stab Ogoga in the stomach.
Omara ran away, forcing Arach to run after him and stabbing him in the back. He fell and he was stabbed a second time on the upper arm.
Meanwhile, Akullo Teddy, who had just returned from the borehole saw Arach stab her father and tried to intervene she was also stabbed in the lower part of her stomach. Some people who had witnessed the stabbings raised an alarm, forcing Arach to flee to the bush and hide.
Eventually, he was arrested by the area LCI chairman and was taken to police where he admitted to stabbing the trio who had been rushed to a medical facility. Unfortunately, Akullo and Ogoga died due to their wounds.
Arach was indicted on two counts of manslaughter and one count of murder. He pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced to three life imprisonment sentences which he appealed.
In his appeal, Arach stated that the trial judge had erred in law when she passed sentences of three life imprisonment which he said were very harsh and excessive in the circumstances thereby occasioning a miscarriage of justice.
In their unanimous ruling, the Court of Appeal observed that the trial Judge although she mentioned that the aggravating circumstances far outweighed the mitigating circumstances on all three counts, she however, never mentioned them. The Court also observed that the judge had considered matters that were never before her while sentencing Arach. “In addition to considering matters that she ought not to have considered, the trial judge ignored the following important mitigating factors. The appellant was a first-time offender with no previous record. The appellant pleaded guilty thus saving the courts' time and resources,” the Justices noted.
They added that the trial judge did not also recognize that the plea of guilt was a gesture of remorse on the part of Arach and the fact that he was only 37 years old, capable of reform and becoming a useful member of society and that he was also married with four children. “We are satisfied that the sentences imposed in this appeal by the trial judge being the maximum sentences available for those offences were harsh and manifestly excessive considering the various mitigating factors ignored by the learned trial Judge. This warrants this court to interfere with the sentences of the trial court. We are satisfied that the appropriate sentence on count 1 and count 2 would be a sentence of 7 years imprisonment on each of those counts taking the aggravating and mitigating factors into account. We would deduct 2 years and 11 months from the said period leaving the appellant to serve a term of 4 years and 1 month from the 17th December 2013, the date of his conviction,” the court ruled.
On the third count of attempted murder, the court reduced the sentence from life imprisonment to that of five years which it said was the appropriate sentence.
It added that all these sentences would be served concurrently. Because Arach had been sentenced in 2013, it meant by 2018, he had already served the five-year sentence imposed on him. Hence the court ordered for his immediate release.
