HKSAR v. Li Suet Ping

CACC 542/2002

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF APPEAL

CRIMINAL APPEAL NO. 542 OF 2002

(ON APPEAL FROM HCCC NO. 160 OF 2001)

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BETWEEN

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Before : Hon Stock JA and Gall J in Court

Date of Hearing : 9 November 2004

Date of Judgment : 9 November 2004

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J U D G M E N T

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Hon Stock JA (giving the judgment of the Court):

1.On 17 October 2002 this applicant was convicted of the offence of murder.  The application for leave to appeal against conviction was dismissed by this Court on 21 June 2004.  She now seeks leave to appeal against sentence.

2.She has provided us with an account of an unhappy marital life and has given us an account of the suggested events leading up to her husband’s death.  The events leading up to his death were the subject of the trial and the appeal against conviction, and this Court is now concerned only with the issue of sentence.  So, too, the applicant has sought, in effect, to recanvass matters raised on appeal against conviction.  She asks us to impose a determinant sentence.  As she appreciates in her homemade grounds of appeal against sentence, the sentence for the offence of murder is fixed by law at life imprisonment and that is the sentence imposed by the trial judge.  There are therefore no valid grounds of appeal against sentence.  Furthermore, Section 83G of the Criminal Procedure Ordinance precludes an appeal against sentence where the sentence is fixed by law.  Accordingly, the application for leave to appeal against sentence is dismissed.

Applicant in person (re: Sentence)

Mr D G Saw, SC, DDPP leading Ms Peggy Lo, GC of the Department of Justice for the Respondent