Sylvester Lucas versus The Republic

Sylvester Lucas versus The Republic; Criminal Appeal No. 67 of 2014:  Court of Appeal of Tanzania at Dodoma (Unreported).

• Criminal  Procedure

• Sentence –Under what circumstances an appellate court may interfere with sentence imposed by trial court
• Sentence – mitigation – the court should consider mitigation.

Held:-

(i) As a matter of principle an appellate court would not interfere with a sentence imposed by a trial court, unless the trial court used wrong principles; the sentence is patently inadequate or excessive and the trial court ignored an important matter or circumstances which it ought to have considered.

(ii) It is mandatory for the court to consider mitigation given by the accused person.