AIDOO vs. THE STATE [1963]DLSC1912

Date	1963-06-21
Suit No.
Citation No.	[1963]DLSC1912

ADUMUA-BOSSMAN JSC

MILLS-ODOI JSC

OLLENNU JSC

COFIE FOR THE APPELLANT

D. F. ANNAN

SENIOR STATE ATTORNEY

FOR THE RESPONDENT

[1963]DLSC1912
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AIDOO

<a name="_gjdgxs"></a>vs.

[SUPREME COURT]

[1963] 2 GLR 84

DATE: 21ST JUNE, 1963.

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COUNSEL:&nbsp;&nbsp;

COFIE
FOR THE APPELLANT.

</div>

ADUMUA-BOSSMAN, MILLS-ODOI AND
OLLENNU JJ.S.C.

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&nbsp;

Ollennu J. delivered the judgment of the court. The appellant who
was convicted of the offence of murder by Djabanor J. in the High Court,
Kumasi, upon the verdict of a jury, appealed against his conviction on the
following grounds:

&nbsp;

The crime was committed on the 15th February, 1962. There was no
eye-witness and the case for the prosecution depended upon (1) a report made
shortly after the incident by the appellant himself to the first prosecution
witness, a sister-in-law of the deceased, and also to the police when he was
charged and cautioned, and (2) circumstantial evidence.

The facts established by the evidence are as follows: the victim
of the crime, one Akosua Krah, was a wife to the appellant by customary law and
had been married to him for about three years before her death. About three
months before the murder, the appellant complained to the second prosecution
witness, a brother to the deceased, that his wife, the said deceased, had
persistently refused him sexual intercourse. When called and questioned about
this, the deceased, Akosua Krah, explained that she was in an advanced state of
pregnancy, and therefore had no strength for the regular daily sexual exercise
demanded by her husband, the appellant. Accepting the explanation of the
deceased as reasonable, for he could himself see the woman’s physical
condition, the witness then advised the appellant to sympathise with the
deceased and not insist upon having sexual connection with her daily, which
advice, the appellant accepted. The deceased gave birth to her child on or about
the 27th December, 1961.

On the day of the incident, the 15th February, 1962, the appellant
went to his farm in the morning; at about noon the deceased took food to him in
the farm as she usually did; she carried her six weeks old child on her back.
What happened in the farm and thereafter was related by the appellant in his
cautioned statement to the police as follows:

“I was in the farm at about 1 p.m. when the deceased Akosua Krah
brought food for me. I questioned her why she never brought the food in time.
She replied that I should not worry her. I did not say anything and took my
food quietly. After I have finished eating, the deceased told me that, if I
continued to worry her, she will seek for dissolution of the marriage as her
child is now grown. I became worried when she said so. This brought a quarrel
between us and I struck her with a cutlass which I was then holding in my hand.
She fell down dead. I became afraid and left the farm. I came back to Besease
village. I brought the cutlass and kept same in my room. I found that I could
not stand the strains of going to court for murdering my wife. I decided to
take my own life. I was having two tins full of D.D.T. I took one tin of the
D.D.T. and went towards a pit latrine. I opened it and drank some of the stuff
from the tin. After I have drunk from the tin, I fell to the ground, when I was
on the ground, I heard the voice of one Abena Asantewaa, the wife of my
brother-in-law Kwadjo Weremfuoh and shouted and called her. She came to the
spot. I informed her that I have murdered my wife Akosua Krah in my farm at
Dentinho bush and I wanted to commit suicide by drinking D.D.T. At the time of
informing Abena Asantewaa no one knew that I had killed my wife Akosua Krah.
Abena Asantewaa left away. I do not know what happened afterwards until I found
myself at Bekwai Hospital, it was only yest</main>