In 2001 Mr Mpofu, and others, was convicted of murder and other serious offenses committed in 1998. On September 2001, Mr Mpofu was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder, as well as 28 years imprisonment for other offences, to run concurrently with the life term. He has apparently served 13 years of his sentence.
Mr Mpofu appealed his life sentence to the constitutional court and alleged that he was a child at the time of the offence. He also argued that the High Court failed to take his minority status on account when sentencing him as required by section 28 of the Constitution which guarantees the best interests of the child.
Mr Mpofu’ application was rejected by the Director of Public prosecutions (DPP) arguing that the High Court was justified in its sentencing.
In a majority judgment Mr Mpofu’s applications for condonation and for leave to appeal were refused. The judgment holds that Mr Mpofu failed to establish that the right under section 28 of the constitution was engaged at all, because he had not shown that he was under the age of 19 at the time of the offense. The application for leave to appeal was made 10 years after the court sentenced Mr, Mpofu, in which he failed to explain the extent of the delay further weakening the interests of justice in granting both applications for condonation and leave to appeal. In addition to this, Mr. Mpofu failed to explain adequately why he brought two previous applications to the constitutional court for leave to appeal against his sentence in which the issue wasn’t not raised.
In conclusion the Constitutional Court dismissed the applications for condonation and for leave to appeal