25 years for former death row inmate

Kgati was sentenced to death by Lobatse High Court judge Mercy Garekwe in January last year after she found no extenuating circumstances that could persuade the court to impose a sentence other than capital punishment on Kgati.

However, in their judgment yesterday, justices of appeal Dr Seth Twum, Steve Gaongalelwe and acting judge David Newman found extenuating circumstances and replaced the lower court’s decision with a 25-year jail term.  Reading the judgment, Justice Twum said “after a very hard and anxious consideration of this human tragedy, I have come to the firm conclusion that the death of the deceased was not premeditated and that it was a rape which went wholly wrong".