Judgment No. CCZ 13/2015 3 Const. Application No. CCZ 56/13 [8] Owing to the lengthy delay in the finalisation of his trial, the fact that the record of the proceedings had gone missing and the prejudice that he stands to suffer were a trial de novo to take place, he prayed for an order permanently staying the criminal proceedings against him. [9] On 22 January 2014, this Court sat to hear submissions on the application. The State advised the Court that it had not been possible to obtain an affidavit from the Registrar of the High Court explaining the status of the record of proceedings. By consent of both parties, the matter was postponed sine die and an order made for the Registrar of the High Court to file an affidavit, within thirty days, to clarify the status of the record and, if lost, the effort made to reconstruct the record. The Court also ordered the trial judge to furnish, through affidavit, the reasons for the delay in the finalisation of the matter. [10] In response thereto, the Acting Registrar of the High Court of Zimbabwe advised, by affidavit, that the record as transcribed and the judge’s note books had gone missing. The cassette tapes used to record the proceedings had been erased after the transcription and re-used in other cases. Whilst a number of documents had been availed to assist in the reconstruction, the record on the evidence led was not available. [11] In his response, the trial judge, also by affidavit, stated that after the closure of the defence case and the hearing of closing arguments, he convicted the applicant on two counts of murder and one of robbery. One of the three accuseds had passed on before judgment. He acquitted the remaining accused. After hearing submissions on the question of extenuation, he made a finding that were no such circumstances as both counts of murder had been committed in cold blood and in the course of a planned