By Kusekwa Kusekwa
A man who had been on death row for allegedly killing his wife has walked free after the Court of Appeal ruled that the case against him was based on nothing more than suspicion.
Justices Rehema Mkuye, Lucia Kairo and Gerson Mdemu, sitting in Arusha, overturned both the conviction for murder and the death sentence handed to Baraka Jeremia, a resident of Arumeru District in the Arusha Region, over the death of his wife, Hawa Baraka Isanja.
In a recently delivered judgment, the justices declared: “We find that the case against the appellant was not proved beyond reasonable doubt. We, therefore, allow the appeal, quash the conviction, set aside the sentence and order the immediate release of the appellant, unless otherwise lawfully held.”
The ruling came after an unusual turn in court, when both the prosecution and the defence agreed that the evidence presented could not support the charge of murder. The prosecution was led by Senior State Attorneys Naomi Mollel, Eunice Makala and Blandina Msawa while the defence was represented by Advocate Richard Manyota.
The High Court had convicted Jeremia largely on circumstantial evidence, including claims that he had not promptly reported the incident to police and that his home appeared unusually clean, suggesting concealment. But the appellate bench said such reasoning fell far short of the standard required in a criminal trial.
“Since such evidence did not eliminate other possible explanations, it did not qualify as circumstantial evidence. Suspicion, however strong, cannot be sufficient to sustain a conviction,” the justices ruled.
Jeremia and the deceased were married and lived in Sing’isi, Arumeru District. He worked as a motorcycle rider. On the morning of September 24, 2019, Jeremia went to his neighbours seeking help to take his wife to hospital, saying she was gravely ill.
Two neighbours accompanied him to his home, where they found Hawa lying unconscious with fresh injuries near her head and face and a swollen right eye. She died later that day at Tengeru Hospital.
In his defence, Jeremia said that on the previous day, September 23, 2019, his wife had gone to visit her sister in Sanawari and had been unreachable by phone overnight. He claimed that the following morning, she was brought home injured by an unknown person on a motorcycle.
Jeremia testified that he rushed her to Tengeru Hospital and then went to Usa River Police Station to report the incident and obtained a Police Form No.3 (PF3) — a standard medical examination form for victims of assault — but was arrested instead.
