The State v Isak Wapsi (2009) N3695

• Jurisdiction: Papua New Guinea
• Date: 24 July 2009
• Citation: (2009) N3695
• Docket Number: CR NO 1203 of 2008
• Court: National Court
• Year: 2009

Full Title: CR NO 1203 of 2008; The State v Isak Wapsi (2009) N3695

National Court: Cannings J

Judgment Delivered: 24 July 2009

SENTENCE

CRIMINAL LAW—sentencing—Criminal Code, s299 (wilful murder)—guilty plea—young man killed a man by cutting his legs with a bushknife, severing one leg—sentencing guidelines for wilful murder—when appropriate to impose death penalty—circumstances in which belief in sorcery can be considered as mitigating factor—proof of belief—weight to be attached to belief in sorcery—sentence of 25 years.

A young man pleaded guilty to the wilful murder of a man in the village who he claimed was a sorcerer. The deceased was working at a fermentery and the offender approached him without warning or provocation and cut his legs with a bushknife, severing the right leg and inflicting significant damage to the left leg.

Held:

(1) The starting point for sentencing for this sort of killing, a planned and vicious attack with a lethal weapon with both mitigating and aggravating factors, is 20 to 30 years imprisonment.

(2) Mitigating factors are: the offender acted alone, not in a mob; he was motivated by a genuine belief in sorcery; he co-operated with the police and made very early admissions of guilt; he is a first time offender; he pleaded guilty; he is a relatively unsophisticated villager.

(3) Aggravating factors are: this was a vicious and barbaric killing; the offender directly killed the deceased; the offender has shown little remorse; the circumstances of the incident show that there was a strong desire to kill; there has been no peace or reconciliation with the deceased’s relatives and no payment of compensation.

(4) A sentence of 25 years imprisonment was imposed. The pre-sentence period in custody was deducted and no part of the sentence was suspended.

Cases cited

The following cases are cited in the judgment:

Irai Thomas v The State (2007) SC867; John Baipu v The State (2005) SC796; Manu Kovi v The State (2005) SC789; Saperus Yalibakut v The State (2006) SC890; Steven Loke Ume v The State (2006) SC836; The State v Sedoki Lota (2007) N3183

SENTENCE

This was a judgment on sentence for wilful murder.

1. CANNINGS J: This is a decision on sentence for a young man, Isak Wapsi, who pleaded guilty to the wilful murder of a fellow villager, Philip Asoka. The offence was committed at Kukum village in the lower Ramu area of the Bogia District, Madang Province, between 6.00 and 7.00 pm on Sunday 27 April 2008.

2. The deceased was working at a fermentery in the village. The offender approached him and without warning or provocation cut his legs with a bushknife, severing the right leg and inflicting significant damage to the other leg. The deceased died of severe blood loss on the way to the health centre.

3. The offender was arrested soon after the incident. He immediately admitted to the police what he had done and said he killed the deceased as he was a sorcerer.

ANTECEDENTS

4. The offender has no prior convictions.

ALLOCUTUS

5. The offender was given the opportunity to address the court. He said:

I thank the Judge and the Court for the time spent on my case. We are now at the end of my case. I apologise for the wrong that I committed. There was a reason why I did what I did: the deceased threatened to kill me. This is my first time to appear before the National Court. Please consider me for a short term sentence.

OTHER MATTERS OF FACT

6. As the offender has pleaded guilty he will be given the benefit of the doubt on mitigating matters raised in the depositions, the allocutus or in submissions that are not contested by the prosecution (Saperus Yalibakut v The State (2006) SC890).

7. Two matters are relevant here. The first is not contested by the prosecution and will be taken into account as a mitigating factor. The offender co-operated fully with the police. He was arrested on Monday 28 April then was subjected to a formal interview at Bogia police station on Tuesday 29 April. He made admissions, acknowledged his guilt and said that he intended to kill the deceased.

8. The second matter is more contentious. The offender said in his police interview that the deceased was a sorcerer and that many people in the village knew him to be a sorcerer and feared him. Further, the deceased had threatened to kill him, so the offender made the decision to kill the deceased before he was himself killed. He largely repeated these assertions in his allocutus. The State submits that in an appropriate case a genuine belief in sorcery can be taken into account as a mitigating factor but this was not such a case as there is insufficient evidence of that belief. I reject that submission. I acknowledge that there is a danger in courts too readily accepting sorcery as an offender’s motivation for killing. But here, the claim was made very early in the police investigation, corroborated by the pre-sentence...