BOTSWANA: COURT UPHOLDS DEATH SENTENCE

February 2, 2010: in Lobatse, Botswana, the Court of Appeal confirmed the death sentence given to Modise Fly by the Francistown High Court for the 2006 murder of his two-year old son. Justice Seth Twum found no extenuating circumstances and that differences with the child’s mother did not warrant murdering the child with an axe.
His attorney, Mr Moabi Madandume, had argued against the allegations by the prosecution that Fly had acted with malice aforethought in killing his son saying his client had committed the incident accidentally by hitting the child while throwing away an axe to convince the police that he was unarmed. (Sources: BOPA, 02/02/2010)