Wijepala v. The Attorney General – sllr 2001 volume 1 page 046

In WIJEPALA v. THE ATTORNEY‐GENERAL, the court examined whether the appellant’s conviction for culpable homicide not amounting to murder could be sustained on the basis of uncorroborated eyewitness testimony and undisclosed police statements. The sequence of events involved a fatal stabbing, a trial substantially reliant on the testimony of a single witness, and questions regarding the non-production of a purported prior police statement. It was determined that significant doubts surrounded the reliability of the sole eyewitness, and the failure to produce or confirm the existence of the earlier police statement called into question the fairness of the proceedings as protected under Article 13(3) of the Constitution. The court ruled that, where critical evidence remains undisclosed or unce