Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1504697
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 30 JULY 2023 11 LAW CLASSIFIEDS THE Court held that the Crim- inal Court has a discretion to award a punishment in cases of wilful homicide in terms of Article 492(2) of the Crimi- nal Code. This was held by the Criminal Court on 17 July 2023 in Repubblika ta' Malta vs Mi- chael Emmanuel. Michael Emmanuel was found guilty for the wilful homicide of his partner Maria Lourdes Agius and sentenced to life im- prisonment and was ordered to pay €9,839.30 in court expens- es. Agius was found dead in her bedroom on 14 September 2018, due to strangulation by her partner Michael Emmanuel. Emmanuel was accused of seven offences, in which he was found guilty on the first count; wilful homicide by the jury who reached an 8-1 verdict. The accused was also found guilty of slight bodily harm on Maria-Lourdes Agius and her mother who lived in the same household as Emmanuel. Fur- thermore, he was found guilty of forging public, commercial or private bank accounts and disobeying lawful orders. When one is found guilty of wilful homicide, the law is very clear as it is states in Article 211 of the Criminal code that "Who- soever shall be guilty of wilful homicide shall be punished with imprisonment for life". Thus, a person who falls under this Ar- ticle of law suffers the harshest punishment found in the Mal- tese Criminal Code. This is life imprisonment. As stated in the judgment, it does not mean that if one is found guilty of wilful homicide, they receive a pun- ishment of life imprisonment. Judge Aaron Bugeja, the judge presiding over this case, made it clear that it is up to the dis- cretion of the court to establish the punishment, although it was the State's recommenda- tion that there should be life imprisonment and solitary con- finement. The Court pointed out that there was a distinction between Article 492(2) of the Criminal code, which allows the Court discretion on which punish- ment is awarded when the ver- dict in a jury is not unanimous and Article 17(b) of the Crim- inal Code, which provides that when a person is found guilty of more than one crime, the pun- ishment shall be for the graver crime with an increase varying from one third to one half of the aggregate duration of the other punishments. However, Article 17(b) does not cater for life im- prisonment. When taking into account the seven charges the jury had to deliberate on, the majority of charges the jury delivered verdicts which were clear that upon understanding the facts of the case, were fairly confi- dent upon the guilt of Michael Emmanuel. Although the jury did not vote unanimously upon the guilty verdict of accusation of wilful, as it ended up with 8 jurors finding Emmanuel guilty whilst 1 juror did not. This was used by the defence lawyer Dr Simon Micallef Stafrace, who argued that an 8-1 verdict does not translate to a unanimous verdict, due to the fact that 1 juror was not convinced that the accused was guilty. Thus, the defence raised this plea so that the court does not give the accused the maximum pun- ishment of life imprisonment accompanied with solitary con- finement as it was not a unan- imous verdict. The Court did comment that the closer the verdict to unanimous the clos- er the punishment should be towards the maximum punish- ment. The prosecution told jurors that the crime committed by the accused was heinous. In ad- dition to this, they stated that the victim died a "cruel" death. By way of referring to the judg- ment, the prosecution urged the court to follow the state's recommendation and give Em- manuel the biggest punish- ment. The prosecution also shed a light on the fact that this is not just a homicide trial, but also a domestic violence trial. This is because, the victim was beaten gravely by the accused whilst in her house which was considered to be a "safe space", but in turn became a ground of a malicious violence which re- sulted in the death of a mother. Ultimately, the court decid- ed to base its decision on the specific circumstances of the case in question. Upon hearing submissions from both sides and also the parte civile repre- senting the victim's family. The court looked at certain criteria which were factored in when taking the decision on what punishment, Michael Emma- nuel was to be given. Mr Justice Aaron Bugeja de- cided that the accused was to receive a punishment of life im- prisonment and he was also or- dered to pay €9,839.36 for court expenses. 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