"Plea guilty" or "not guilty"

1.1 MEANING OF PLEA:

In Tanzania plea is defined under section 228(1) of The Criminal Procedure Act[1] to mean a reply to a truthfulness of the charge.

There are several types of plea, which are plea of guilty, plea of not guilty, autrefois convict, autrefois acquit and pardon[2].

1.2 THE PLEA OF GUILTY:

A plea of guilty means a confession to the offence charged, also it was defined in the case of Patrick Rimmer V R[3], in which the court stated that the plea of guilty has two effects, one being it is a confession of facts and second being it is such a confession that without further evidence the court is entitled to and indeed in all proper circumstances will act upon it and result in a conviction. Pleas of guilty are governed under section 228(2) of the Criminal Procedure Act[4] hereinafter referred to the Act.

Under common law, a plea of guilty by the defendant waives trial of the charged offenses and the defendant may be sentenced immediately[5].

A plea of guilty must be clear and free from ambiguities, that is to say must be an unequivocal s plea. A plea like, “it is true”, “I admit”, “I did wrong”, “that is correct”, “Iam sorry” and the like. Are for all practical reasons not clear and free from ambiguities. In the case of Yonasani Egalu and others V R[6], it was stated that it is most desirable not only that every constituent of the charge should be explained to the accused but that he should be required to admit or deny every element of its unequivocally.

Where therefore, an accused person unequivocally pleads guilty to a charge he will be found guilty of the offense charged and will be convicted on his own plea. This is provided under section 228(2) which provides a follows;

If an accused person admits the truth of the charge his admission shall be recorded as nearly as possible in the words he uses and the magistrates shall convict him and pass sentence upon or make an order against him, unless there shall appear to be sufficient case to the contrary.

2.1 PROCEDURES TO BE FOLLOWED BY THE COURT WHEN THE ACCUSED PLEADS GUILTY TO THE CHARGE:

The interpretation of these provisions is now well settled and it is this; when the accused’s plea indicate that he is admitting the truth of the charge, the magistrate should call upon the public prosecutor to give the facts of the case. The term facts here means a summary of the evidence which the prosecution witnesses would have given before the court had the accused pleaded not guilty to the charge. When the facts have been given, the magistrate must ask himself whether or not such facts constitutes the offence charged. If he is not so satisfied, he will record a plea of ‘not guilty’ and witnesses will then have to be called to prove the charge. If on the other hand the magistrate satisfies that the facts do not constitute the charge, he will turn to the accused and ask him if he understood the facts and what he has to say about their correctness or otherwise. If the accused says that those facts are correct, the magistrate will record a conviction against him.

It is only when the accused reiterates his plea of guilty and that the court is satisfied that the charge tallies with the facts the prosecutor has produced that the court may proceed to pass his conviction, consider his mitigation and sentence him accordingly. This was stated in the case of R V Waziri Mussa[7], by Mahon J while interpreting section 228 (2) of the Criminal Procedure Act.

This procedure, as was so held in Adan V R[8] serves two purposes. It enables the magistrate to satisfy himself that the plea of guilty was unequivocal and that the accused has no defense. It further gives the magistrate the basic materials on which to assess the sentence, it is a realization of Judicial experience as it frequently happened after hearing the statements of facts disputes some particular fact(s) or  alleges some additional facts, showing that he did not really understand the position when he pleaded guilty.

Sometimes you will find that the particulars facts are of little or no importance and which, even if conceded by the prosecutor, do not alter the main facts constituting the offense. In such a case a plea of ‘guilty’ can be entered and a conviction entered not withstanding the accused’s dispute of inconsequential details.

After conviction, the magistrate will ask the public prosecutor if the accused has any previous records, If he has no previous records he is said to be a first offender, if that’s the case, the magistrate will ask the accused to say anything in mitigation of the sentence, that is, to say something which the court may consider as justifying lenience. After this the magistrate sentences the convict.

3.0 CONCLUSION:

The Plea of guilty only amounts to an admission that the accused committed the act alleged against him. The accused should plead by his own mouth and not through his counsel or pleader. Any admission made by his pleader is not binding on him.

REFERENCES:

STATUTES

 Criminal Procedure Act CAP. 20 Revised Edition 2002

BOOKS:

B.D. Chipeta, A Magistrate’s Manual, TMP Book Department, Tabora, Tanzania.

S. E. Mchome, Criminal Law and procedure, Faculty of Law, University of Dar-es-salam.

V.R. Manohar (et al), The Code of Criminal Procedure, 17^th Edition, Wadhwa and Company Nagpur, New Delhi, India, 2007

CASES:

Patrick Rimmer V R (1972) 56 Cr. App. R. 196

Yonasani Egalu and others V R (1962) EACA 65

R  V Waziri Mussa (1984) TLR  30

Adan V R (1973) EA 445

WEBSITES:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleamself

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[1] CAP. 20 R.E 2002

[2] S. E. Mchome, Criminal Law and procedure, p. 109

[3] (1972) 56 Cr. App. R. 196

[4] CAP 20 R.E. 2002

[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleamself

[6] (1962) EACA 65

[7] (1984) 2 TLR  30

[8] (1973) EA445