The embarrassment, humiliation is punishment enough – Morupisi
Mpho Mokwape | Monday November 21, 2022 06:00
The embattled Morupisi on Wednesday had the court fully baffled when he backtracked on his initial decision not to mitigate before his sentencing and told court that he was ready to mitigate.
After taking the stand and explaining his supposedly colourful social standing and career, his attorney Busang Manewe made submissions on his mitigation in an effort to persuade the court to give him a lesser and non custodial sentence.
Manewe explained to court that his client had been punished enough as he suffered huge reputational damage, much trauma and humiliation not only for him but to his family.
“There is no denying that the accused enjoyed high social standing in the society because he held a powerful and influential position in government. That he had to be dragged to court, charged of criminal offences, imprisoned albeit temporarily upon his committal at the back of a prison pick up van and in full view of private and public media classically fits the description of the proverbial fall from grace to grass,” he said.
He argued that the court case and the conviction brought untold misery and suffering to Morupisi, therefore the court ought to take that into account when meting out the sentence urging the court to exercise mercy in its decisions.
Manewe submitted that Morupisi should be spared a custodial sentence because he was a first offender, has a clean crime free record for over 60 years and the intention of the legislature was that imprisonment should be considered only if a fine was not appropriate because of exceptional circumstances that compels the court to send him to prison.
“The legislature has made its intention that imprisonment is undesirable by providing a fine as a first port of call. There are no compelling reasons to send the convict to prison especially that he had submitted himself for fingerprinting and that State conducted a search and has since reported that he does not have a previous conviction,” he told court.
On convicted Morupisi’s age and the interest of society in sentencing, Manewe said it was a well established principle of sentencing that accused persons of advanced ages should not be sent to prison if the law allows it and that it meant that there are no minimum sentences mandatory sentences provided for the offence with which the accused on advanced age has been convicted of, he should not be handed a custodial sentence. He explained that over the years the courts had continued to recognise the advanced age of the convict as strong mitigating factor therefore factors such as Morupisi’s age, that he is a first offender and that the penalty clauses provide for the option of fine meant that they have made out a case for a fine and not imprisonment.
“An advanced age of an accused person is a strong factor in mitigation unless the law directs otherwise, convicted persons of advanced age should not be sentenced to custodial sentences. Morupisi is currently 64 years old and he is deemed to be of advanced age,” Manewe pointed out. On interests of the society in sentencing, Manewe submitted that the courts have taken judicial notice of the fact that the society has sympathy for elderly persons and that government has carried the sympathy a step further by coming up with certain privileges for them like allowing people of advanced age to skip long queues to get service in all government facilities.
He also noted that Statistics Botswana has indicated that life expectancy in the country is 66 years for males and 70 years for females and that Morupisi at age 64 was beyond doubt advanced and living through the final stages of his life.
“Our courts have relied on life expectancy data from Statistics Botswana to make the point that a convict’s age was truly advanced and deserved compassion in sentencing from the courts. No court would want to give out a severe sentence for a man of this age no matter how serious the offence he has been convicted is perceived serious. The convict has made out a strong case for a nominal sentence,” he said. Morupisi will be sentenced on November 30, 2022.