Tanzanian Criminal Law

“If a Person is convicted of murder, the death penalty is obligatory.” Although Tanzanian criminal law is derived from the British colonial legal system, by the time of trial changes had been made. The Indian Codes—that is, Penal Code, Evidence Code, and certain civil codes—had been developed starting in the mid-1820s by legal scholars in England. These scholar took the unwritten common law of England and produced coherent, consistent codes to be used in the British colony of India. The Indian Codes were adopted in East Africa, including Tanganyika, in the early 1920s. This chapter describes the criminal law applicable to the Bill Kinsey case, including the interplay of customary law with the colonial-based evidence, criminal, and criminal procedure codes.

McHugh and Singh Re-create the Scene of Peppy’s Death

In May 1966, Dr. McHugh and Bill’s defense attorney, Gurbachan Singh, travel to Maswa, visit the scene of Peppy’s death, and, based on their survey of the area, prepare a detailed analysis of how Peppy’s injuries would likely have occurred. McHugh first notes the “omnipresent” wind in the area, which he had experienced on previous visits to Maswa. He thinks the wind’s noise level might have been loud enough to keep Bill from hearing Peppy’s fall. With Singh standing in Peppy’s place, behind Bill and to the right (according to Byron Georgiadis, there was insufficient room on the rock for them to stand side by side), and McHugh in the place where Bill stood, as described by Bill, McHugh assesses whether Bill would see Peppy fall. The documents produced from this research will become vital as the defense prepares its case.

A Volunteer Is Dead

On Monday, March 28, 1966, Jack McPhee, regional Peace Corps director in Mwanza, received a call that Peppy Kinsey is dead. He goes to the hospital for more information and to make preparations for handling the body. He then drives to Maswa, a small town some 80 miles away, and finds that her husband, Bill, is being held on a charge of murder. At first, Peace Corps officials set in motion procedures for handling the death of a volunteer, but now a much more serious situation emerges, and the Peace Corps scrambles to find an attorney, a pathologist, and decide how to respond to a charge of murder. In the meantime, a Tanzanian medical officer performs a postmortem, and Bill appears before the local magistrate.

The Peace Corps and Tanzania

The Peace Corps was founded in 1961. The first problem faced was whether any country would ask for volunteers. To address this problem, Sargent Shriver, the first Peace Corps director, traveled early on to Africa to encourage requests and met Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere, who asked for engineers, and the second group of volunteers to arrive overseas landed in Tanzania in 1961. Tanzania became independent from Great Britain in 1961. The journey to independence, how it was governed in 1966 at the time of the Kinsey case, and relations between the United States and Tanzania are examined, with a discussion of the roles of Julius Nyerere, Paul Bomani, and Lady Marion Chesham. The case presents a potential international disaster for this country, still in its infancy, at a time when there are already strains over Nyerere’s “African socialism” and America’s role in the Congo.

A Lovely, Creative Woman and an All-American Boy from the South

Peverley (Peppy) Dennett Kinsey came from a prominent New England background. Her grandfather, Tyler Dennett, received the Pulitzer Prize for his biography of John Hay. Her father graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard and was director of the World Peace Foundation and president of the American Scandinavian Foundation. She attended prestigious schools, including Mount Holyoke College, where she became an accomplished dancer. Peppy’s longtime friend Victoria Ferenbach speculates on what might have happened on Impala Hill, where Peppy died. Bill Kinsey grew up in North Carolina, attended Washington and Lee University, where he excelled academically, and participated in a great many activities, such as, the Washington Literary Society, publication of Ariel, track, rifle team, and the International Relations Club.

Trial Day Seventeen

Judge Platt announces that he will not give his verdict on September 17, as originally planned. He gives no reason, but one might assume that he is still perhaps unsure of his decision or still writing up his decision. Peace Corps staff provide an updated estimate of the costs of the trial, which total some $23,000 (approximately $164,000 in today’s dollars). Although the Kinsey family originally agreed to cover the cost of the defense, by this time legislation has passed whereby the Peace Corps is enabled to pay these expenses. The increase in costs over earlier estimates seem commensurate with the length of the trial and the need for additional witnesses. In addition, Tanzania Peace Corps staff forward to Peace Corps Washington a nine-point comparison of Tanzanian law and U.S. law.

The Preliminary Inquiry

“A crowd of solemn-faced African villagers sat on the stone benches around the whitewashed walls of the court, squatted on the concrete floor and stood four deep outside.” In early May, the magistrate holds a preliminary inquiry (PI) in Maswa. After a three-day hearing, the magistrate orders Bill to be held for trial in the High Court in Mwanza because the prosecution has presented a prima facie case. Several eyewitnesses are called to testify about the events on Impala Hill on March 27, 1966. Although the prosecution presents its entire case, the defense offers none of its evidence because under Tanzanian law it can be reserved for later. A strategic decision is made based on the assumption that the prosecution has adequate evidence to lead the magistrate to order Bill to trial; in this way, the prosecution will be unprepared and surprised by evidence put forward at the trial.

A Tale of Three Cities

The action takes place along a triangle between three towns in Tanzania. Mwanza, the third-largest city in Tanzania, sits on the shores of Lake Victoria at an altitude that provides a pleasant, temperate climate. The trial eventually will be held in Mwanza. Maswa, adjacent to the famous Serengeti National Park, is the site of Peppy’s death and where various preliminary activities take place. It is a small, dusty town. Dar es Salaam, is the site of the U.S. embassy and the Peace Corps headquarters in Tanzania. Communications between Tanzania and Washington, D.C., flow out of Dar es Salaam, the capital of Tanzania at the time, which is on the coast facing Zanzibar and the Indian Ocean.

Trial Day One

Judge Platt describes the trial procedure. Bill Kinsey enters his plea. Prosecutor Ededen Effiwat gives his opening statement. The prosecution’s medical expert Philip Mganga, the assistant medical officer in Maswa, describes Peppy’s many injuries based on his postmortem report and why he feels Peppy was killed with the alleged murder weapons. Defense attorney Byron Georgiadis challenges him aggressively on his medical qualifications and on errors in his understanding of anatomy. Dr. McHugh has been allowed to remain in court during the testimony, and later that day he supplies a detailed memo on the many medical errors in Mganga’s testimony. Apparently, McHugh and Georgiadis often play squash on Judge Platt’s court after the day’s proceedings end, which might be seen as a conflict of interest.

Peace Corps Officials Assess the Situation and Plan Future Action

In early April, cables fly between Dar es Salaam and Washington, D.C., discussing how to proceed. Peppy’s body is sent to New York after an emotionally moving ceremony in Dar es Salaam. Several memos are prepared summarizing the evidence and events to date. Questions about who will pay for a defense attorney arise, a list of potential defense attorneys is developed, and Bill’s father and members of the North Carolina congressional delegation accuse the Peace Corps of abandoning Bill. The issue of bad press coverage continue to worry PCDC, as evidenced by a cable urging local officials to coordinate on information to be given to the press. The cable points out that misleading and inaccurate stories are appearing in the American press and are attributed to Peace Corps officials in Tanzania.