Human Leopards : $b an account of the trials of Human Leopards before the Special Commission Court; with a note on Sierra Leone, past and presentBeatty, Kenneth James
History
Human Leopards : $b an account of the trials of Human Leopards before the Special Commission Court; with a note on Sierra Leone, past and present
Beatty, Kenneth James
Cannibalism; Ethnology -- Sierra Leone; Leopard men; Sierra Leone -- History
(2) Not less than seven days before the sitting of any Special
Commission Court, notice thereof shall be published in the _Gazette_
stating the names of the Special Commissioners, the place at which the
Court will sit, and the day on which the sitting of the Court will
begin.
(3) An objection to the jurisdiction of a Special Commission Court to
try a person for any offence shall not be entertained by reason only of
any non-observance of the provisions of this section; but the Court, on
application, may adjourn the case, so as to prevent any person charged
being prejudiced by such non-observance.
[Sidenote: Regulations as to courts.]
5.—(1) If any member of a Special Commission Court dies, or if it
appears to the Governor that from illness or some reasonable cause it is
necessary that another person should be appointed in the place of a
member of a Special Commission Court, the Governor may, if he thinks it
expedient so to do, direct a supplemental commission to be issued,
appointing another person to fill the vacancy in such Court.
(2) Subject to the provisions of this Ordinance, and for the purpose of
the trial of any persons charged before them, a Special Commission Court
shall have the same privileges, powers and jurisdiction as if it were
the Circuit Court of the Protectorate, trying with native chiefs, or
non-native or native assessors an offender before such Court, and shall
follow, as far as possible, the practice and procedure of that Court,
and in hearing and determining the cases of all persons tried before a
Special Commission Court, such Court shall, as far as possible, be
guided in arriving at a decision by the laws in force in the Colony. A
Special Commission Court shall be a court of record, and the same
intendment shall be made in respect of all orders, writs, and process
made by and issuing out of such Special Commission Court, as if it were
a court of record acting according to the course and by the authority of
the common law.
(3) All the members of a Special Commission Court shall be present at
the hearing and determination of the case of a person tried before such
Court, but, save as aforesaid, the jurisdiction of the Court may be
exercised by any of such members, and any act of the Court shall not be
invalidated by reason of any vacancy among the members.
(4) The trial by a Special Commission Court of a person in pursuance of
a warrant under this Ordinance shall begin as soon as may be, but it
shall be lawful for the Court to postpone such trial on the request of
such person, or on account of the illness or absence of a witness, or on
account of a vacancy in the Court, or of the illness of such person, or
some other sufficient cause, and to discontinue a trial of a person,
when commenced, on account of a vacancy in the Court or the illness of
such person, or some other sufficient cause.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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