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Romanus Okoye
Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja, yesterday sentenced a 36-year-old woman, Mrs. Stella Godwin, to death by hanging for stabbing her neighbour to death.
The court presided over by Justice Raliat Adebiyi, said the prosecution proved the murder charge against the convict beyond reasonable doubt.
While delivering her judgment, the judge stated that the defendant used a knife on the deceased and explained that “by any standard, a knife is a lethal weapon.”
She said that the testimonies of three prosecution witnesses tallied with the Coroner’s report which confirmed that the deceased was stabbed in the chest.
“The chest is where the heart is. The defendant by stabbing the deceased in the chest, a very fragile part of the body, clearly intended to cause the most harm to her” she said.
“The death of the deceased occurred as a result of the grievous injury caused by the defendant. The defendant is culpable of the offence of murder.” Justice Adebiyi said that the defendant’s testimony contradicted her confessional statement because her claim that she was attacked by the deceased only amounted to self defence.
“She did not prove that she was in free for all when she stabbed the deceased. From the evidence, the fight took place in a room, though no evidence was given of the size of the room, it could not have been a very large room.
