MY TWIN BROTHER WAS PUNISHED FOR MY CRIME. DOES THIS MEAN I AM FREE ?.

 

Kato and Wasswa are identical twins who look, walk and talk in the same way. They even confuse their parents sometimes. Recently, Wasswa’s wife was murdered and a neighbour identified the killer as Wasswa. The police announced on tv with a picture of Wasswa and someone reported that the ‘killer’ was sitting in a shop drinking beer. The police arrested the ‘killer’ even when he kept telling them that he did not do it, but the court sentenced him to death and he was executed. Then a rumour started that some people had seen the ‘ghost’ of that terrible wife killer. It turns out the police arrested Kato and killed him thinking he was Wasswa. What happens next if the police find out they were wrong?  

 

WHAT DOES THE LAW SAY?

By law, every person has a right to life. This is a serious human right and it can only be taken away in case of a punishment given by a court of law. However if the wrong person is executed for a crime and it can be proved that he was the wrong person, then the state (Uganda) will have violated/abused that person’s right to life because his/her life was taken away wrongly.

For example, if Wasswa was the one who had been executed, then his right to life would have been taken away lawfully however since Kato was the one killed for the crime then this is an abuse/ violation of his rights. This could have happened because of negligence or wrongful conviction which Kato would have sued the government for.  

 

As we know, only living people can sue one another, but the law allows the family of a person who has been wronged by the government to sue on his/her behalf. Kato’s family can get some compensation for the wrongful conviction and death of their son because of negligence in doing the police and prosecution work, by suing the government. The court will re-examine or asses the rightness, correctness and lawfulness of what happened and if they find that there was a mistake in what happened, they can compensate Kato’s family.  

 

However, this does not mean that Wasswa is now free. If he is found, he can still be arrested and taken to court to pay for the murder of his wife.

Source: BarefootLaw