adminOften, members of the public have blamed murder on stress, mental illness and rituals but still, can it be justified?
Others have said it would not be the perpetrators intention to kill; it would have been an accident but how does an accident degenerate into murder?
It remains perplexing because murder has become rampant with headline after headline highlighting a case of murder. Many murder cases have so far been reported all over the country, only three months into the year.
In one incident, a Gweru woman from Mkoba Village 11 was arrested after she allegedly killed her newly-born baby by boiling it on a stove after the father denied paternity.
In another incident, a Chipinge chief’s live-in girlfriend allegedly went berserk and butchered the traditional leader in cold blood with a machete accusing him of infidelity.
A man from Bulawayo’s North End suburb was fatally stabbed at his house by two suspects who went on to dump his body along Airport Road.
Again, in a chilling incident, a 29-year-old man from Bulawayo’s Old Pumula suburb stabbed his friend thrice with a kitchen knife following a quarrel over headphones.
In another incident, two mentally challenged siblings grabbed and strangled their mother before stabbing their sister with a knife on the forehead, tried to strangle her and dragged her into a fire leaving her body lying unconscious with severe burns all over.
While the country was still mourning these killings, a 61-year-old man was killed by three men, who went on to slice off some of his body parts and dumped him in a mountain in what was suspected to be a ritual murder.
Most recently, a Mpopoma man split the skull of his estranged wife and chopped off her hands with a machete before trying to commit suicide by slitting his wrists over an undisclosed dispute.
Mr Bongani Dube (25) of Bulawayo said people who committed murder were cruel. He said it was an inexcusable offence that people needed to be punished for severely.
“Murder should never be condoned. It is cruel and heartless for anyone to kill another person.
“The Mpopoma man who killed his wife was very inconsiderate towards his children because now they do not have a mother,” said Mr Dube.
He said although murderers should be punished severely, they should not be sentenced to death.
“It is not necessary to sentence murderers to death. They should just be locked up in jail for long periods of time after which they should be released,” said Mr Dube.
He said the victim’s family was worst affected by this gruesome crime and it was necessary to find ways of helping them through the trauma.
“It is unfair to neglect the needs of the deceased’s family. There should be ways of helping them through the trauma,” said Mr Dube.
Although the family would have lost a loved one, Mr Dube said it is not justified to demand exorbitant compensation.
“No amount of money will bring back the dead. It is to a certain extent selfish to demand compensation that people cannot afford,” he said.
Mr Dube said even the relatives of the murderer would not have it easy.
“You lose people’s trust, even your own relatives’ when you commit such a crime. They might think you would also attack them with a machete one day,” he said.
Experts say one motive for killing may be revenge. They say usually, when someone kills out of vengeance, they do not think clearly, resulting in the instant decision to kill based on anger.
Though most vengeful killings are not thought through or premeditated, some are. Certain vengeful killers filled with jealousy, anger, hatred, or a hunger for revenge may plan the definitive killing of a person or group of people using an intricate plan thought out for days, months, or even years.
Although revenge may be one of the main reasons people kill, it is not the only one. Dedicated murderers, serial killers or those who are mentally challenged murder people as a way of life.
Experts say these killers think of it as a way of life, as if killing is like oxygen; they need to kill to live and breathe. Many of these killers have unstable minds that fabricate convoluted thoughts of torture, mutilation, rape, and any other horrible thing their mind can think of to carry out on their victims.
“People who kill should be sentenced to death,” said Mrs Nozizwe Msipa (43) reflecting on the grisly murder that occurred in the city recently.
She said she did not condone murder and abortion.
Mrs Msipa said those who commit these crimes do not have the right to take away life therefore they should be punished.
“These people are not the ones that give life therefore they should be punished for taking it away. God is the one who gives life and he is the only one who can take it away,” said Mrs Msipa.
Expressing a different view, Miss Nicole Tanyanyiwa (27) said sometimes people murder because of a pressure build-up.
“In some cases where you find someone who is murdered over something small, it will not be because of that particular thing but because of other things that someone would have been suppressing for a long time.
“These people usually do not have the intention to kill. But they find themselves in that position when it is too late. They are usually remorseful and are tortured mentally by memories of the ghastly crime,” said Miss Tanyanyiwa.
She said it was because of this that when a murder case appears in court, prosecutors try to determine whether the murder was by constructive intent or actual intent.
Mr Barnwell Chari (58) said he had no mercy for people that murder, adding they did not deserve to stay in the country’s prisons. He said people that commit the crime waste taxpayers’ money when they are serving life sentences.
“We do not have the money to take care of people who have to stay in our prisons for over 50 years. This is taxpayers’ money that is going to waste.
“People who murder should be sentenced to death by hanging. If there are 100 people who have committed murder, they should all be hanged in order for the country to save money,” he said.
Mr Chari said this is because when someone is in prison over a protracted period of time his or her general welfare needs to be taken care of, which costs money that he said the country does not have.
“Perhaps some may argue that the punishment should depend on the degree of murder like in the case of the Mpopoma man who butchered his wife.
“He [allegedly] killed his wife in cold blood, in front of his son, a memory which will stick in the child’s mind for the rest of his life.
“In other countries, people get two life sentences for committing such a crime but in Zimbabwe that will not work,” said Mr Chari.
Capital punishment, which Mr Chari advocates, has been a key talking point in the ongoing constitution-making exercise. The Lancaster House Constitution provides for the death penalty in certain circumstances, but some organisations have been lobbying for it to be dropped in the proposed supreme law. But the Copac management committee has unanimously agreed that the death penalty should be abolished except for aggravated murder.
Minister of Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs Advocate Eric Matinenga said the issue regarding the death penalty had been resolved with the committee agreeing that it be discarded except in cases of conviction for aggravated murder.
Commenting on possible reasons why people commit murder, Ms Minenhle Gumede, a psychologist at a local hospital, said the most common reason is because of
personality disorders such as schizophrenia, anti-social disorder and mood disorders such as bipolar disorder or severe depression.
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterised by a breakdown of thought processes and by poor emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests itself as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions or disorganised speech and thinking and it is accompanied by significant social or occupational dysfunction.
The onset of symptoms typically occurs in young adulthood, with a global lifetime prevalence of about 0,3 to 0,7 percent. Diagnosis is based on observed behaviour and the patient’s reported experiences.
Mood disorders refer to a category of mental health problems that include all types of depression and bipolar disorder. Mood disorders are sometimes called affective disorders.
What causes mood disorders is not well known however; there are chemicals in the brain called endorphins that are responsible for positive moods. Other chemicals in the brain called neurotransmitters, regulate endorphins. Most likely, depression and other mood disorders are caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain.
Life events such as unwanted changes may also contribute to a depressed mood.
Mood disorders aggregate in families and are considered to be multi-factorially inherited. Multi-factorial inheritance means that “many factors” are involved. The factors that produce the trait or condition are usually both genetic and environmental, involving a combination of genes from both parents.
Often one gender, either male or female, is affected more frequently than the other in multi-factorial traits.
There appears to be a different threshold of expression, which means that one gender is more likely to show the problem, over the other gender.
Antisocial disorder is described as a personality disorder characterised by a pervasive pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others that begins in childhood or early adolescence and continues into adulthood.
Ms Gumede said another factor that pushes some to commit murder is drug abuse.
“Drug abuse can lead to drug related psychosis which can make one commit murder although in most cases it is due to schizophrenia,” she said.
“When people have minor or moderate depression they would not commit murder but when someone is suffering from severe depression they would need clinical supervision because they can be harmful to others or even themselves.”
Online Reporter