Death row inmate escapes the noose
Mpho Mokwape | Tuesday August 9, 2022 06:00
The convict, Lesupatsela Ramoswaana fought hard to get out of a date with the hangman when the Court of Appeal (CoA) bench on Friday granted his wish, successfully appealing his conviction and sentence.
Ramoswaana has been on death row since October last year for killing his girlfriend, a registered nurse, Lesego Dikole before dumping her in the bushes to rot.
Justice Isaac Lesetedi said there were extenuating circumstances which existed in the case that the trial court failed to recognise when delivering the judgment.
“The finding of the trial court that no extenuating circumstances exist in this case and the imposition of the death penalty on the appellant is hereby set aside,” he said.
The judge explained that the convict was now sentenced to 30 years for the murder of Dikole of which the sentence would run from September 28, 2021, when he was sentenced and that the period the murderer was in custody awaiting trial would be deducted.
Though Justice Lesetedi acknowledged that the murder was a brutal killing of a defenceless woman and that the conduct of Ramoswaana was not only inhuman but callous as well, the court must reflect and recognise all the facts of the case for an appropriate sentence.
“The brutality of the offence needs no repeating. Here was a clear intention, even if in a passion of jealousy, to kill the deceased not only by stabbing her in the heart but also by garroting her and then waiting for her to bleed to death before burying her in a shallow grave. His level of anger was indeed repulsive. The terror she must have been in as he viciously attacked her with a knife is expressed by her screams. From the bruises on his hand and his explanation for it, this must have been preceded by a physical assault on her. Yet his anger was not alleviated. The nature and focus of the wounds are testimony to his savagery,” he explained.
He, however, pointed out that the court should not be complacent with those who stay in what are evidently dysfunctional relationships hoping that the use of material support will buy the fidelity they crave and resort to brutal violence when that fidelity was not assured.
Ramoswaana’s escape from the death penalty comes after he argued that he was convicted despite the High Court not being convinced of his confession or recollection of events.
“The court relied largely on a threat-to-kill that the deceased had made against me to demonstrate that I had planned to kill her. The court convicted me of murder and sentenced me to death as it was convinced that there were no extenuating circumstances that could lessen the blameworthiness in this case,” he said.
The State on one hand wanted Ramoswaana to be handed death sentence, as they believed he deserved the harshest punishment for the murder. “There were no extenuating circumstances as on evidence the trial court came to the conclusion that the incident of the phone call was nothing but an afterthought concocted by the convict in an attempt to explain away his heinous and senseless killing of the deceased,” read the State’s arguments.
Ramoswaana was convicted by the now CoA judge Mercy Garekwe in Lobatse High Court in October 2021.
The convict and the deceased were in a relationship before the fateful day.