Present:

R. C. RAJAPAKSE and others, Appellants, and THE STATE,
Respondent

Appeals Nos. 4-8 of 1973, with Applications 4-8

Five persons were indicted before the Supreme Court upon charges, inter alia, of unlawful assembly and of the murder of two persons A and B committed by one or more members of that unlawful assembly. The Jury, however, found all the accused guilty of the murder of A but returned a verdict of culpable homicide only against the 4th and 5th accused in respect of the death of B. The verdict brought by the Jury showed that the Jury had not understood the directions of law concerning the difficult topic of vicarious criminal liability. The Jury was then discharged and a fresh trial was held, at which the accused were convicted on both the former charges.

that, at the first trial, there was established such confusion in the minds of the Jury that it was quite unsafe to accept from the Jury a verdict involving the imposition of sentences of death on five persons. The Jury was therefore properly discharged by the Judge in the exercise of the powers conferred on the Judge

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