WILLIAMS vs. THE REPUBLIC

Mensah Boison J.A. delivered the judgment of the court. This is an appeal by Mariama Williams against her conviction and sentence for the murder of her husband J.B. Lari. The trial was before Gogo J., sitting with a jury at the High Court, Sekondi on 3 January 1981. The deceased, Lari, was a superintendent in the Special Branch of the Ghana Police Service, and at the time of these events had been posted on transfer from Sekondi to Kumasi since January 1979. The appellant, as wife, and the rest of Lari’s household, however, were still at the deceased’s official bungalow at Palm Line Estates, Sekondi awaiting final removal to Kumasi. The couple, both from Bawku in the Upper East Region, had been married for about twelve years by then; the appellant having risen to the grade of nursing officer within the period, and was at the time working at Effia Nkwanta Hospital. Besides the three young sons of the marriage, there was Narki, a pre-marital daughter of the appellant. She wa...