The Supreme Court has overturned the Court of Appeal’s decision that quashed the conviction of a man jailed for a 2015 murder and ordered a retrial.
This case involves Pauliasi Nausara, who was sentenced to mandatory life imprisonment with a minimum term of 18 years for the murder of Michael Semiti Osborne.
On the evening of March 21, 2015, Nausara punched, kicked, and stomped on Osborne while he was not in a position to defend himself, causing him serious injuries.
Osborne was taken to the hospital unconscious and was admitted to the intensive care unit and then to the trauma ward.
Osborne remained in hospital in a vegetative state until June 25, 2015, when he died.
At Nausara’s trial, the three assessors expressed the opinion that he was not guilty of murder but was guilty of manslaughter, however, the judge disagreed and convicted him of murder.
Nausara then appealed against his conviction, raising several grounds of appeal which were allowed by the Appellate Court. The court ordered his conviction to be quashed and ordered a retrial.
This was on the basis that the information did not provide sufficient particulars of the respondent’s offending in two respects — the date in the information did not relate to the respondent’s actions that contributed to Osborne’s death, and the information did not specify whether the prosecution was relying on intention or recklessness as the mental element for murder.
The Appellate Court considered that these were deficiencies which prejudiced the respondent in his defence. Having reached this view, the Court of Appeal did not deal with the other grounds which the respondent had raised.
The State then petitioned for leave to appeal against the Appellate Court’s decision.
Supreme Court Justices Anthony Gates, Terence Arnold, and Lowell Goddard, in one of its orders after analysis, also restored Nausara’s murder conviction.
The judges ordered that his file be returned to the Appellate Court so the grounds of appeal which he raised but were not dealt with can be determined by a differently constituted court.
