ZIMBABWE: CONSTITUTION SAVES MAN WHO FATALLY SPEARED UNCLE FROM DEATH SENTENCE

November 17, 2013: In Zimbabwe, an Inyathi man who murdered his uncle escaped the hangman's noose when a judge invoked a provision of the new Constitution which waives capital punishment.
Everton Ndlovu (26) was found guilty of murder with actual intent by Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Martin Makonese on circuit in Hwange for the murder of Cornelius Moyo in 2008.
Murder with actual intent carries a capital punishment. Ndlovu was aged 20 when he killed Moyo while trying to restrain his younger brother Fanuel from fondling the breasts of his wife's younger sister.
Passing judgment, Justice Makonese said Ndlovu had the country's Supreme Law to thank for not being sent to the gallows.
Chapter Four, Part Two, Section 48, Subsection 2 (c) of the new Constitution states that the death penalty must not be imposed on offenders aged less than 21 at the time they commit a crime or somebody above 70.
Ndlovu was then sentenced to 25 years in prison. (Sources: bulawayo24.com, 18/11/2013)