Summary of The State v. Yewande Oyediran
General Facts
The lady was charged with the offence of murder sec 316 criminal code She was accused of stabbing her husband to death at a particular time
Defendant
- She narrated to the court that she has been suffering domestic violence and abuse from her husband who recently had an affair and gave birth to an illegitimate child.
- The husband was a cheat and would often dominate and beat her occasionally. This was said to be even public Knowledge .
- On the certain date the deceased died, they had argued that night about the Miss Rebecca Jegede had called the defendant and she in turn accused her husband and it turned into a huge argument which ended abruptly when she stabbed him on the chest with a scissors.
- The landlord and his wife were the first people to be at the scene and tried to separate the fighting couple.
- The deceased was helped to go to a hospital which was along their street and treated the superficial stab wounds on his chest. They called various witnesses and all of them had a different story
- The defendant claimed that after he came back from treating his wound she noticed around early morning that her husband was looking for a plank which he used to beat her in retribution of her stabbing him with the scissors.
- She couldn’t help but scream for help and ran out of the house, her husband holding a knife. He had picked up the knife early in the house and the defendant ran for her life.
- The landlord was the first at the scene and he called that it was the defendant that stabbed her husband
So there were 2 issues raised
1. Was the evidence especially the witnesses credible enough to charge the defendant for murder.
2. Was there reasonable doubt established
Held
The court held the defendant and sentenced them to 7 years imprisonment