RETHINKING THE DOCTRINE OF THE LAST SEEN IN MURDER TRIALS

Abstract

It is settled under the Nigeria law of crime that the person who was last seen with a deceased id presumed to bear full responsibility for his death. this doctrine necessitates a person charged with murder to proffer explanation on how the deceased met his death solely on the ground that he was the last person seen with the deceased before death occurred. without such an explanation, a court will be justified in drawing the inference that an accused person killed the deceased. however, presumption of innocence is a fundamental aspect of the adversarial system of justice in Nigeria, as is the evidentiary burden of proof that naturally behoves the prosecution to discharge in a charge of murder. this paper evaluates the propriety and jurisprudential justification of the doctrine of the last seen and the laid down ingredients that the prosecution must prove before a charge of murder can be established and argues that the doctrine lacks the compulsion and irresistible conclusive features that an accused person/ suspect and no one else is the murderer.