Nine-Year Delay Seals Fate: Supreme Court Rejects "Hopeless" Murder Appeal

The Supreme Court has dismissed a long-delayed attempt to overturn a murder conviction, labeling the effort a waste of judicial resources.

In a recent ruling, Justice Mathonsi, alongside Justices Guvava and Kudya, rejected Certain Moyo's application to challenge his life sentence for the 2016 murder of his 77-year-old father, Johnson Siphoko Moyo. The court found Moyo's filing submitted over nine years after his sentencing to be "extremely inordinate" and his explanation for the delay unsatisfactory.  Follow & Share Our WhatsApp Channel

More critically, the court concluded the appeal itself was "completely without merit" and "demonstrably unarguable," with no prospect of success. Justice Mathonsi emphasized the court's "gatekeeping" role in shutting out "obviously a doomed appeal."

The original trial established that Moyo, then 26, lured his father to a cattle pen in Malisikana village, Plumtree, in August 2016 before launching a fatal axe attack. The brutal assault, which caused severe head injuries and multiple skull fractures, was witnessed by Moyo's three-year-old son, who later provided what both the High Court and Supreme Court deemed credible and compelling testimony as the sole eyewitness.

While the High Court had found the killing premeditated and brutal, it imposed a life sentence instead of the death penalty, accepting that Moyo's fear that his father planned to consult faith healers over missing cattle somewhat reduced his moral blameworthiness.

The Supreme Court's dismissal marks the definitive end to Moyo's bid for appeal.