MZUZU (MaraviPost)—It does not get sweeter than this in the fight against Albino killings as Malawi High court in Mzuzu gave a judicial punch of life imprisonment sentence to one Samson Banda who was found guilty of attempting to kill a person with Albinism. It is said in Law that a maximum sentence is reserved for the worst offender who is normally not yet born but presiding judge Dingiswayo Madise was all smiles on Wednesday when he stated that he had found the worst offender in Samson Banda.
The material facts of the case are that Samson Kaumba and Fiskani Mtambo were accused of coaxing an Albino boy, Morton Juma, 11, into a bush where they hacked him on the neck and left biceps in a shocking episode of the infamous Albino killings in September last year.
The state, as is the standard in criminal offences, proved beyond reasonable doubt that Kaumba committed the offence prompting Judge Madise to deliver the landmark judgment that Kaumba should spend the rest of his life in prison with no opportunity for pardon.
His co-accused Fiskani Mtambo should thank heavens for being off the hook as the judge said that the state had failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt the culpability of the second accused.
Senior chief state advocate Dzikondianthu Malunda embraced the sentence meted out on Kaumba as a cause for celebration as the country grapples to clampdown on the killings.
“Justice has won,” Malunda told reporters outside the court.
In his reasoning, the state lawyer said attempted murder is no different from cold-blood murder as both are fuelled with the intention to kill and the victim did not survive by the mercy of his assailants but by chance and divine intervention.
In mitigation, defence lawyer Chimwemwe Chithope described the convict as a first offender, youthful, sickly and deserving of mercy, saying the offence was “a mere attempt”.
He asked the court to treat the attempted murder of persons with albinism like any other based on the principal of equality before the law.
The judge overruled the calls for a lesser sentence but rhetorically nodded to the legal myth that maximum sentences are reserved for worst offenders.
“Today I have that worst offender before me,” said the judge as he admonished the convict and his unknown accomplices for setting out to kill Morton like a chicken or goat.
Meanwhile, Mzuzu academy has offered the young Morton a scholarship. The young boy dropped out of school for fear of being hacked by these vampires.