AKUOKO vs. THE REPUBLIC

Jiagge J.A. delivered the judgment of the court. The appellant was tried before Charles Crabbe J. and a jury at the Assize Court, Accra. He was convicted of murder and he appealed to this court against his conviction. Having heard counsel on his behalf, this court allowed his appeal, reduced the conviction for murder to a conviction for manslaughter, and postponed giving reasons to a later date. The reasons will now be given. In the course of a dispute between the appellant’s sister and her husband, the deceased, the appellant asked the deceased to pack his things and leave the house. The deceased and his wife, who was the appellant’s sister, had lived in the appellant’s mother’s house for a period of two years before the events that formed the substance of the crime in question. The deceased insisted that before he left the house his wife and his two children by a previous marriage, should pack their belongings and that his children should leave the house with him. Th...