By Theresa Kef Sesay
High Court Resident Judge in Kailahun District, Hon. Justice Francis Banks-Kamara on the 7th May 2021 sentenced an accused person, Kholie Tamba, to death by hanging.
The accused first appeared before Hon. Justice Banks-Kamara for the offence of murder on the 8th February 2021 and in just about three months of trial, judgment was delivered with the jury unanimously returning a ‘guilty verdict’ for the one count indictment.
According to the particulars of offence, the accused Tamba Kholie, on a date unknown in September 2018 in Nyadehum Mabarbu in Luawa Chiefdom, Kailahun District, murdered one Amara Koroma.
The case was prosecuted by State Counsel Daniel Mansaray while Patrick Kamara Esq from Legal Aid Board defended the accused.
Addressing the jurors, Justice Banks-Kamara said they should be able to understand the elements constituting murder. He described the act of the accused as “barbaric and does not resonate with 21st century civilized reasoning.”
According to him, the act of the accused contravenes a cardinal Provision in the Sierra Leone Constitution, Chapter 3 of Act No. 6 of 1991. He went on to say that the act of murder is unforgivable, adding that the judgment will serve as a deterrent to others who are hell-bent on derailing the peace in society.
Basing his judgement on the ‘guilty verdict’ returned by the jurors, Justice Francis Banks-Kamara sentenced Tamba Kholie to death by hanging.
While thanking members of the jury for sacrificing their precious time, the Hon. Judge assured that the cliché of ‘Justice Delayed is Justice Denied’ has no place in Kailahun. He said the vision of the Hon. Chief Justice, His Lordship Justice Desmond Babatunde Edwards, is to provide expeditious trials and to take justice closer to the people which he is committed to achieving.
