Dissecting a Legal Equilibrium and the Right of the Court to Convict for a Lesser Offence Proved

Abstract

Criminal justice system administers justice and safeguards the lives and properties of individuals in the society. It is regarded as the stage a defendant passes through until the final determination of his case. One of these stages is the criminal trial of the defendant. Criminal trials are often bedeviled with challenges relating to the appropriate procedures to be followed for proper administration of justice in respect of a criminal charge. When the prosecution or the court faults procedures, it affects the constitutional rights of the defendant and often leads to injustice. When a charge is preferred before the court and the plea of the defendant is taken based on the charge before the court, courts in most cases have formed the usual practice of convicting the accused person based on the evidence of the prosecution whose evidence discloses a different offence from the one charged. This practice violates procedural rules and it is a breach of the right to fair hearing of the defendant. This study examined the procedure in criminal trial, the duties of the court in criminal trial and the constitutional provisions on the rights of the defendant. The study adopted doctrinal research methodology with specific reliance on primary and secondary sources such as judicial decisions, statutes, textbooks, articles, online materials among others. The study concluded that the necessary procedural steps should be observed where the evidence of the prosecution discloses a lesser or different offence other than the one charged and pleaded to by the defendant.