In Brief
A 23-year-old man was convicted of kidnapping, raping, and murdering a 3-year-old girl based on circumstantial evidence including his disclosure of her location during a so-called worship ceremony, and recovery of her body from a concealed sack. The trial court and High Court sentenced him to death. The Supreme Court upheld his conviction but commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment, holding that while the crime was heinous, the young offender with no criminal record, rural background, and potential for rehabilitation did not warrant capital punishment. The court emphasized that courts must consider not just the crime's brutality but the criminal's circumstances, age, and possibility of reformation before imposing death sentence.
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