Trials
Court Assigns Panel for Onyum Appeal
Uganda's Court of Appeal named three justices to hear Christopher Okello Onyum's challenge to his murder convictions and death sentences in the Ggaba daycare killings.
By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer ·
Naming a panel gives the appeal a court. It does not undo the convictions, and it does not put a hearing on the calendar. Four children were killed. The justices now have to decide whether the trial court mishandled the evidence, the insanity claim, or the death sentences.
Uganda's Court of Appeal has assigned Justices Christopher Gashirabake, Eva K. Luswata, and John Mike Musisi to hear Christopher Okello Onyum's appeal. The assignment went out on Nov. 10 through the judiciary's electronic case system. It does not set a date, and it does not disturb the judgment.
On April 30, Justice Alice Komuhangi Khaukha, sitting with a mobile High Court at Ggaba, convicted Onyum of four counts of murder and sentenced him to death on each count. The court found that on April 2 he entered the Ggaba Early Childhood Development Centre in Kampala and fatally stabbed four young children. The judge rejected an insanity defense. She found the evidence did not show a mental disease that kept him from understanding what he did.
Onyum, who filed the appeal from prison, argues that the judge did not properly evaluate the evidence, did not deal correctly with the medical proof of his mental state, and imposed sentences that were too harsh. He wants the convictions quashed, the death sentences set aside, and his release ordered. He remains at Luzira Maximum Security Prison while the appeal is pending. The appeal is Criminal Appeal No. COA-00-CR-CN-0288-2026.
Shop
Checkout is on Shopify. A few from the rack:
More on the desk
By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer
BREAKINGJury Seated in Paulding Murder Retrial
A June jury never decided this case. She says her husband shot himself, and the medical examiner said the wound was not self-inflicted. The new jury has to hear that dispute from the evidence in the courtroom.
Read the take
Reporting noted by Courtroom Insider, Court TV, 11Alive, FOX 5 Atlanta, and Paulding County Sheriff's Office.
By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer
BREAKINGPurvis Enters Plea in Overdose Death
An Alford plea is a guilty plea. She can still say she did not do it, and a judge can still sentence her on the three counts. Harris is dead. Forty-four years is the top of the exposure written into the plea papers, not a term anyone has imposed, and no sentencing date is on the calendar.
Read the take
Reporting noted by WSB-TV, 11Alive, CBS Atlanta, and People.
By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer
BREAKINGJury Finds Morgan Guilty of Murder
Smith is dead, and the murder verdict is the jury's finding on what Morgan meant to do. He had already admitted manslaughter and told the court he only meant to frighten a cyclist who hit his car. Sentencing on Nov. 30 is the judgment that is still ahead.
Read the take
Reporting noted by BBC, Eastern Daily Press, and Norfolk Constabulary.