A labourer who was convicted of murder in 1996 escaped...

A labourer who was convicted of murder in 1996 escaped the gallows after the Court of Appeal found him guilty of a lesser charge of manslaughter.
Court of Appeal judges Datuk Gopal Sri Ram, Datuk Wira Mohd Noor Ahmad and Datuk K.C. Vohrah unanimously allowed the appeal by Chiu Kong Hua, 37, and substituted the death sentence for a jail term which ended on the day.
Chiu, had been convicted by the Johor Baru High Court on August 16, 1996, for the murder of Lai Lih Huah, 18.
He was sentenced to death by High Court judge Mohd Ghazali Mohd Yusof after the jury returned a guilty verdict with a 5-2 majority.
The appellant's lawyer, Karpal Singh Karpal, appealed on the grounds that the trial judge was wrong in not confirming with the jury the offence it had found Chiu guilty of [manslaughter] but made the assumption that Chiu was found guilty of murder and went on to sentence him to death.