[2020]DLCA9262 • April 30, 2020 • Court of Appeal
ERIC YAW ASANTE vs. THE REPUBLIC
The appellant, Eric Yaw Asante, estranged from his wife, returned to his matrimonial home where he found the deceased, Stephen Yaw Acheampong, and two friends preparing food with permission from the appellant's wife. A dispute arose over possession of the house keys, leading to a struggle between the appellant and the deceased. The appellant retrieved a gun from his vehicle and fired at the deceased, resulting in the deceased's death. The appellant claimed the gun discharged accidentally during a struggle initiated by the deceased attempting to retrieve the gun from him.
read moreKyei Baffour J.A: Underlying this appeal is a throw down of the gauntlet to the court by the Appellant for us to have a second look at the summing up and indeed the entirety of the evidence based on which the jurors returned a verdict of guilty of murder and to apprise ourselves as to whether there was a misdirection or non-direction in any form by which same has occasioned a substantial miscarriage of justice to the Appellant. The Appellant was tried on indictment for the charge of murder under section 46 of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960, Act 29. The jurors returned a verdict of guilty of murder and was accordingly convicted and sentenced to death by the court below. The facts which are not in dispute are that the Appellant who was estranged from his wife, Rosemond Asante had moved out of his matrimonial home at Oyarifa, returned to the house on the 27th of January, 2013 in the company of a friend, Emmanuel Adjeipong Danso, who testified as DW1. The Appellant parked his car outside...