[1964]DLSC1866 • November 6, 1964 • Supreme Court •
AMETEWEE vs. THE STATE
The appellant, a police constable, was charged with the murder of Salifu Dagarti, the head of security officers, who was accompanying the President of Ghana on 2 January 1964 at Flagstaff House. The appellant was armed with a .303 rifle and fired three shots aimed at the President but missed. The deceased intervened, and the appellant fired a fatal shot that killed him. Four eyewitnesses testified to the shooting, and a pathologist confirmed death by a bullet wound to the head. The appellant admitted firing shots intending to kill the President but denied intending to kill the deceased, suggesting the fatal bullet might have been fired by someone else. The jury rejected the appellant's defense and convicted him of murder.
read moreJUDGMENT OF MILLS-ODOI J.S.C. Mills-Odoi J.S.C. delivered the judgment of the court. The appellant was charged with the murder of one Salifu Dagarti and was convicted of this crime on 7 April 1964, at the Criminal Session of the High Court, Accra, at a trial before Siriboe J. (as he then was) upon the verdict of a jury. He appealed to this court and it is not without significance that his notice of appeal raised the questions with which this court has been concerned, but which were merely a repetition, with some elaboration, of the defence which he raised at the trial. The case for the prosecution was put forward primarily by four eye-witnesses, namely, Andrews Kwaku Botwey (fifth prosecution witness), Abdulai Sissala (hereinafter referred to as Abdulai), Emmanuel Narter Dosoo (eighth prosecution witness) and Dickson Yaw Fofie (eleventh prosecution witness) and was as follows: On 2 January 1964, Abdulai was in charge of four police constables, including the appellant, who were sche...