ILO, STACY CHINAZA (2026) ISSUES AND CHALLENGES OF EVIDENTIAL REQUIREMENTS IN ESTABLISHING GUILT IN MURDER CASES IN NIGERIA. Other thesis, Godfrey Okoye University, Enugu.
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Abstract
At the apex of criminal offenses, is murder, which is mandatorily punishable by the death penalty in Nigerian criminal law; yet, its proof in prosecution is demonstrably beleaguered by deeply ingrained institutional, evidential, forensic, and constitutional impediments. The present study interrogates the legal and institutional regime that governs the proof of murder under the Criminal Code Act, the Penal Code, the Evidence Act 2023, and the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015, and constitutionally protected rights. Applying doctrinal research, which engages a critical examination of principal statutes and established jurisprudence of higher courts, the study dissects the trinity components of proof; the fact of death, cause and effect, and finally mens rea. It establishes the perennial forensic infrastructure gap, an outdated emphasis on coactive confession evidence, evidence decay due to systemic trial delay, and poor police investigations, has led to courts consistently relying on imperfect oral witness evidence or convoluted pieces of circumstantial evidence which occasion mistrial. The paper recommends urgent and systematic implementation of mandated video recordings of all police investigations of murder, establishment of state financed inter-state Forensic Sciences laboratories, a robust witness Protection Act and Specialist Murder Trials teams in Nigerian’s case management architecture.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Other) |
|---|---|
| Subjects: | K Law > K Law (General) |
| Divisions: | Faculty of Law, Arts and Social Sciences > School of Law |
| Depositing User: | COMFORT AJALA |
| Date Deposited: | 27 Jul 2026 10:22 |
| Last Modified: | 27 Jul 2026 10:22 |
| URI: | http://eprints.gouni.edu.ng/id/eprint/6026 |
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