JUDGMENT

Richard Malanjum CJ (Sabah & Sarawak):-

Introduction And Background Facts

[1] Before us are two appeals taken together. For convenience in this judgment we will refer to the respective appellants as the 1st appellant for criminal appeal No. 05-19-2007 (1st accused in the trial below) and the 2nd appellant for criminal appeal No. 05-20-2007 (2nd accused in the trial below). Both appellants are appealing against the decision of the Court of Appeal (COA) dismissing their appeals and affirming the judgment of the learned trial judge who convicted them on four charges of murder and sentenced them to death accordingly.

[2] When the hearing began before us learned counsel for the 2nd appellant requested that he submitted first in view of the issues he intended to raise. Learned counsel for the 1st appellant agreed. Hence we acceded to the request. In fact when his turn to submit came up learned counsel for the 1st appellant substantially adopted the submission of learned counsel for the 2nd appellant.

[3] Initially these two appellants were charged together with Kumaresan (the 3rd accused). However at the end of the prosecution case the 3rd accused was discharged and acquitted wi