The Zambia Supreme Court quashed a death sentence on...

The Zambia Supreme Court quashed a death sentence on a farm worker convicted of murdering his lover for alleged infidelity. Chief Justice Matthew Ngulube, sitting with judges Ernest Sakala and Peter Chitengi reduced the death sentence of Whiteson Simusokwe to 20 years with hard labour.
Simusokwe was earlier convicted of murdering Nondo Safolisa, his lover who was also his employer. In an appeal hearing against the sentence in Ndola, the court heard that sometime between December 1998 and March 1999, Simusokwe murdered Safolisa, 60, after he caught her having sex with another man.
Safolisa, who owned a farm stead in Kalulushi, had a steady affair with Simusokwe. He found Salifosa having sex with another man and claimed he beat her with a stick following this provocation, though a postmortem report revealed that the deceased was beaten up severely with a metal bar. Simusokwe then covered up the crime until Sofalisa's son confronted him in March 1999. Chief Justice Ngulube ruled that the court would uphold the conviction of murder but ruled that the intimate relationship and the actual provocation "nonetheless extenuate the murder charge."
"In these circumstances, we quash the death sentence and replace it with a very suitable sentence of 20 years with hard labour," Chief Justice Ngulube said.