ZAMBIA. TWO TO HANG FOR MURDER

May 11, 2006: the Kitwe High Court, Zambia, sentenced to death Evans Mumba, 42, and Ronald Mwaba, 24, after convicting them of murder.
High Court Judge Catherine Makungu sentenced the two, both of Kitwe, for the murder of Paul Mwape of Chibuluma. According to the court, on August 28, 2003, Mwape's sister Martha Banda was in her bedroom when she heard some gunshots outside her home. When she went out to check, she found that thieves had broken into the house. She was then pushed back into her bedroom and slapped and hit in the face with a gun butt. The intruders also overturned the bed in which her two-year-old baby was sleeping. The court heard that the thieves then shot her brother in the back as they demanded money. Banda managed to flee the house and run to her neighbours. Upon returning to the house with the police she found that Mwape had again been shot near the chin and that his teeth had come out.
A month after the incident, Banda was called to Kalulushi police station where she recognized Mumba and Mwaba and identified them as being among the assailants in the robbery. In convicting the two, Justice Makungu said the State had proved its case beyond all reasonable doubt.
In mitigation Mumba and Mwaba said they were family men who needed the court's leniency and that they were remorseful for their behaviour. In sentencing them, Justice Makungu said her hands were tied as the law stipulated that anyone committing murder during the course of an aggravated robbery must be sentenced to death. She said the duo had malice aforethought and that it was only proper to send them to the gallows. (Sources: The Times of Zambia/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX, 12/05/2006)