THE STATE v TAWONA MICHAEL MHUTE

HH 12-2012

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Case Details

Court

Harare High Court

Date

23 January 2012

Citation

HH 12-2012

Neutral Citation

[2012] ZWHH 12

Outcome

unknown

Case Type

Application

Bench

Presiding

BHUNU J

Full Bench

BHUNU J

Areas of Law

Criminal ProcedureEvidence Law

Keywords

Postmortem ReportAdmissibility of EvidenceAffidavit EvidenceMedical Evidence

Key Issues

{"issue_text":"Whether a postmortem report compiled by a medical practitioner who is unavailable to testify is admissible as evidence under Section 278 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act.","issue_type":"procedural","dispositive":"yes","related_facts":"The State seeks to rely on a postmortem report from a doctor who has left the country."}

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Facts of the Case

Background

The accused is charged with murdering his wife during an incident of domestic violence on 3 October 2008. A postmortem examination was conducted on 9 October 2008 by Dr N Gonzalez, who has since left Zimbabwe and is unavailable to testify. The State applied to admit the doctor's postmortem report as evidence, which the defence objected to.

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