The state might challenge a Supreme Court of Appeal decision to substitute the life imprisonment imposed on a woman who hired two men to murder her abusive partner with a suspended sentence.
”We will study the court documents to determine whether there are grounds for contesting the judgment in the Constitutional Court,” Pretoria deputy director of public prosecutions Retha Meintjes said on Monday.
”A suspended sentence in these circumstances may appear shocking.”
The appeal court last week replaced the life sentence of Anieta Natasha Ferreira with one of six years.
She has already served more than three years in jail, and the remainder was suspended — effectively setting her free.
After years of abuse at the hands of her partner, Cyril Parkman, Ferreira hired two men to murder him in February 1999.
Four appeal judges found that compelling circumstances existed in Parkman’s abuse of Ferreira to justify a lesser sentence than the required life imprisonment for premeditated murder.
The state was of the opinion that constitutional issues might arise from the judgement, which would require further attention, Meintjes said. These included the apparent weighing up of Ferreira’s right to physical integrity to Parkman’s right to life.
”We also have to consider whether the precedent being set is perhaps contestable in light of the minority judgement.”
In a dissenting judgement, Judge Robin Marais said nothing less than eight years’ imprisonment would be appropriate in Ferreira’s case.
A suspended sentence, he said, trivialised murder.
The court has dismissed the appeals of Boston Thys Chilambo and George Koesyn — hired by Ferreira to kill Parkman — against their life sentences.
They strangled him to death on the evening of February 4 1999 as he lay drunk on a couch. Ferreira paid them R5 700.
The three were convicted of murder in January 2001. — Sapa