05 Oct 2024

Death row inmate, Passmore Moyo is set for the last chance to save his life from the jaws of death after Court of Appeal allowed him to appeal out of time. Condemned to death in 2022 by now retired judge, Justice Abednego Tafa for killing his girlfriend six years ago in Good Hope, Moyo last week successfully managed to have the Court of Appeal allow for his appeal against death sentence out of time. “The application for leave to appeal out of time against the death penalty is granted,” said Justice Isaac Lesetedi giving the Zimbabwean illegal immigrant a glimpse of hope to have his life spared. “In light of the evidence on record, this is a matter in which the applicant has a reasonably arguable case and thus prospects of success on appeal,” he said. Justice Lesetedi said after his sentence in August 2022, Moyo in November of the same year filed a notice of application for leave to appeal and relied on prison officials to hand the application. The application, though addressed to the Registrar of the Court of Appeal was erroneously filed with the Registrar of the High Court and got to its destination in August 2023. As such, he said the applicant carried no blame in the filling of the application with the Registrar of the High Court as it was addressed to the apex court and signed well within time to be delivered within the six months period set out under the rules of the Court of Appeal. “That the application addressed to the Registrar of this court was filed with the Registrar of the High Court and erroneously accepted by that office is an error of the registry staff of the High Court and for which the applicant bore no blame as there was little he could do while in prison and being unaware that it had been filed in the wrong office,” he said. With regard to the extenuating circumstances to determine if the death sentence would be appropriate , Justice Lesetedi said there was nowhere on the record showing that the High Court carried out such a probing and anxious exercise in the search for extenuating circumstances. “In my view this is a case in which an appellate court may find that the issue of provocation or the heat of jealousy was substantial enough to outweigh the aggravating factors as an extenuating circumstance,” he said. Although the High Court had convicted him of murder, entering the country through ungazetted point of entry and causing grievous bodily harm, Moyo’s qualms with the High Court was with the death sentence imposed on him. He was accused of killing Mosiamiemang Motswagole through assaulting her with fits and hitting her head with bricks whilst she was laying down. The crux of the fight according to the records of the trial court, ensued after Moyo found the deceased who was his girlfriend then with her ex-boyfriend. The court found that he assaulted the two leading to the death of his girlfriend while the ex-boyfriend sustained a fracture on left hand. Ends