Mukata applies for permission to appeal to the Supreme Court out of time before his life is taken away

By Staff Reporter
MURDER-convict Keith Mukata has applied for leave to appeal out of time to the Supreme Court against the Court of Appeal’s decision to uphold the death sentence slapped on him, saying he wants to be heard by the highest court before his life is taken away.
Mukata, a lawyer and former Chilanga UPND member of parliament, stated in his affidavit supporting an application to appeal out of time that having been condemned to death, he wanted the court to allow him exercise his right to be heard by the Supreme Court.
“Having been condemned to death and this being a capital offence which deprives me of a right naturally inherent and constitutional guaranteed being every person’s fundamental right to life it is in the public interest that I be allowed to exercise my right to be heard up to the highest court of the land before my life is taken away,” Mukata submitted.
Mukata was sentenced to death by hanging by Lusaka High Court judge Susan Wanjelani on February 28, 2018 for shooting dead  Namakabwa Kalilakwenda who was a security guard at his law firm AKM Legal Practitioners in Lusaka’s Rhodes Park but he appealed to the Court of Appeal.
Mukata killed the guard on May 6, 2017.
However, on May 23 this year, the Court of Appeal upheld the death sentence after dismissing his grounds of appeal.
And Mukata in the notice of application for leave to appeal out of time, stated that he intends to challenge the judgement of the Court of appeal to the Supreme Court on grounds that the lower court erred in law and fact by dismissing all the grounds of appeal presented before it except one.
He stated that he will also argue that the Court of Appeal erred in law and fact by maintaining the finding of the trial that the deceased was shot from inside the premises when the basis upon which the trial judge made that finding was in fact dismissed on appeal.
The convict stated that he will further argue that the Court of Appeal erred in law and fact by making conclusions and findings of fact on appeal which are unsupported by the evidence on the record.
Mukata added that he also intends to argue that the Court of Appeal erred in law and fact when it varied the evidence of the witness regarding the 9mm cartridge that he picked from the crime scene.
He stated that his grounds of appeal to the Supreme Court have good prospects of succeeding as he believes the court erred in law and fact when it threw out the appeal.
Mukata  added that if the application was not granted, he will be greatly prejudiced as he would  be deprived of the right of appeal.
In dismissing the appeal, Court of Appeal judge Chalwe Mchenga, who read the judgment of the court, said Mukata had intentions to kill his guard Kalilakwenda of Men in Black Security Firm because  the convict concealed the fire arm in his motor vehicle in a basket that contained plates and hid the keys to the vehicle in a flower bed.
Mukata is held at the Kabwe Maximum Correctional Facility condemned section.