James Grant's Gezwitscher von gestern, in chronologischer Reihenfolge:
Some (abstract) answers to some queries - they are not comments on the #OP case nor necessarily what the State will do:
Leave to appeal was granted on the #OP murder acquittal - this is by far the most important appeal.
The state may petition the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) to allow the appeals against sentence & the unlawful possession acquittal.
In any even, if the verdict of culp hom is changed to murder, the sentence will have to follow and a sentence for murder imposed.
In the absence of an appeal against sentence, if SCA finds murder, the case has to be sent back to High Court for new sentence.
But if appeal against sentence is allowed & pending, & SCA finds murder was committed, it can impose new sentence.
The grant of appeal against acquittal of murder is, in itself, a massive breakthrough because it impugns a host of long standing bad law:
It impugns the law on dolus eventualis as decided in S v Ngubane 1985 AD; confirmed in S v Humphreys 2013 SCA.
It impugns the law that an inference drawn (in accordance with rules of law) from facts, is also a fact - as decided in Nzimande 2010 SCA.
It impugns the law allowing circumstantial evidence to be considered in isolation, on a piecemeal basis, as decided in S v Blom 1939 AD.
It impugns law that State cannot appeal where accused convicted only on a competent verdict due to an error of law (Seekoei 1982 AD).
[Vgl.:
https://twitter.com/CriminalLawZA (Archiv-Version vom 29.01.2015)]