In S v Marx, an important case in South African criminal law, the relationship of the appellant and his wife had deteriorated markedly during the course of their nineteen-year marriage. She had become verbally abusive and aggressive towards him, and humiliated him in public. On the evening in question, she had taunted and abused him. This, coupled with other factors, acted as a trigger for the appellant to shoot her. He was later convicted of the murder of his wife and sentenced to ten years' imprisonment.
On appeal against both conviction and sentence, the court held, that there was no merit in the appeal against conviction. At the time of the commission of the offence, however, the appellant had been acting under circumstances of severely diminished responsibility, which were relevant to sentencing.
The court, had it been sitting as a court of first instance, would have imposed a sentence strikingly different from the sentence imposed in the court a quo. In the circumstances of the case, having regard to the extent of the appellant's emotional disintegration, and the fact that he was acting at the time under circumstances of severely diminished responsibility, a sentence of correctional supervision would be appropriate.
Deterrence, either of the appellant or of others, was not an important factor, having regard to the highly unusual concatenation of events, and the extremely remote possibility of a recurrence. Neither was the case one which was clamant for retribution.
The court held, accordingly, that a correctional supervision order, coupled with stringent conditions, would be fair and just.