The Poisoned Tree: Responses to Involuntary Confessions in Criminal Proceedings in Botswana, Uganda and Zambia

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Periodical article

Title:	The Poisoned Tree: Responses to Involuntary Confessions in Criminal Proceedings in Botswana, Uganda and Zambia
Author:	Nsereko, Daniel D. Ntanda
Year:	1993
Periodical:	African Journal of International and Comparative Law
Volume:	5
Issue:	3
Period:	October
Pages:	609-633
Language:	English
Geographic terms:	Uganda Botswana Zambia
Subjects:	criminal procedure torture Law, Human Rights and Violence
External link:	https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/afjincol5&id=625&collection=journals&index=journals/afjincol
Abstract:	In identical terms the constitutions of Botswana, Uganda and Zambia prohibit torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. This paper examines how the law in these three countries with different political experiences responds to allegations of torture and similar treatment in the context of criminal justice proceedings. The author gives some examples of the methods of torture and the extent to which they are employed in the course of police interrogations in the three jurisdictions. He examines the question of whether an admission or confession made under torture should be admitted as evidence, and discusses interrogation procedures and the absence of the right to legal representation in Botswana and Uganda. He concludes that involuntary confessions, the fruit of the 'poisoned tree' of torture, should not be admissible as evidence and that confessions in general should be seen as only one aspect of a prosecution case. Notes, ref.