Crime scenes crucial

Nov 06, 2002

It was an ugly scene on Monday October 28, on Burton Street in Kampala when the body of a young lady, Joanita Nakiranda lay on the ground, after she was shot by a purported jilted lover later identified as Milton Mukonyi.

Crime Watch

It was an ugly scene on Monday October 28, on Burton Street in Kampala when< a href="http://www.newvision.co.ug/detail.php?mainNewsCategoryId=8&newsCategoryId=13&newsId=93287" target="new"> the body of a young lady, Joanita Nakiranda lay on the ground, after she was shot by a purported jilted lover later identified as Milton Mukonyi.

Although at first people scampered in fright immediately after the shooting, they later converged at the scene to look at the body. A thick crowd formed and a late comer would be lucky to penetrate and have a look.

With the arrival of police officers in uniform, we made it to the body though with difficulty.

The victim, dressed in a red top, a black skirt and black shoes, lay facing down, her black handbag abandoned a few metres away.

The police searched for evidence but the crowd did not seem to understand what the police was looking for.

We could hear comments from the crowd suggesting that the police was wasting time picking “pieces of rubbish and pushing people” instead of looking or chasing for the assailant.

This brings me to the point of protection of the scene of crime. The public has a big role to play in protecting the scenes of crime because this is where the most evidence required to bring the assailant to book is usually obtained.

In our judicial system, the burden of proof lies on the prosecution (the state). Any person is presumed innocent until proven guilty by those who allege that he committed the offence, and in this case the state.

So if Mukonyi is arrested, he will be presumed innocent until proved or he pleads guilty. The standard of proof in our courts in respect to criminal offences is so high that it is beyond reasonable doubt, rather than a balance of probability. This means the degree of proof courts require to convict a person like Mukonyi, must be beyond reasonable doubt that he is the one who shot Joanita.

If he manages to create a 3% doubt that he may not be the one, then he will be a free man.

In this case therefore, the police has to collect all the evidence it can to prove he shot the victim. At this scene for example, the police had a task to recover the spent cartridge of the killer bullet, so that it can be matched with the gun that Mukonyi used to shoot the victim.

In addition, there was evidence that the bullet ripped through the victim’s body and hit a nearby metallic goods container. That bullet tip if recovered, can be very good evidence. Joanita’s bag helped the Police to identify her because that’s where her identity cards were.

In case the unscrupulous street thieves had laid a hand on that bag as the crowds circled the scene, it would have been difficult to identify the victim. And so much more other evidence could be recovered from that scene.

The Police therefore will always cordon off areas at or near the scene of crime and the public is expected to respect this so that the Police can do its work. Valuable evidence can be got from such areas.

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