CRIMINAL CASE NO. 8 OF 2012
COURT: The jury have convicted you of manslaughter by reason of provocation.
From the outset you admitted the unlawful killing of your husband and you have been willing to plead guilty to manslaughter. The majority of the jury clearly accepted your account of the matter, and I will deal with you on the basis of what you told the police and what you said to the jury in the trial.
The quality of the provocative conduct, whilst of course sufficient to cause you and the ordinary person in your position a loss of self control, was not of the most grave kind. There would be other matrimonial arguments of like intensity where violence is avoided.
It goes without saying that the taking of a life, even in the face of provocation, remains a wicked crime. It is one which the courts in such domestic circumstances must still visit with a term of significant imprisonment. You rightly said to the police that you must face the consequences.
I remember the evidence concerning your background, and make as much allowance for those matters lacking in your life as I can.
There is no tariff for sentences in cases like yours. There is a range of sentence between 3 and 9 years discernible from previous cases. I have to fit your case into that range.
In doing so, I give you credit for all along having admitted the manslaughter of which you stand convicted.
The sentence in the circumstances is one of 6 years’ imprisonment.