AKUOKO vs. THE REPUBLIC [1974]DLCA2252

Date	1974-06-07
Suit No.
Citation No.	[1974]DLCA2252

APALOO JA

JIAGGE JA

KINGSLEY-NYINAH J.A.

DR. S. EPHSON FOR THE APPELLANT.

ASAMOAH SENIOR STATE ATTORNEY FOR THE RESPONDENT.

[1974]DLCA2252
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													<main id="main" class="content" style="min-height: 60rem" ><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:
115%;font-family:&quot;Book Antiqua&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;mso-fareast-font-family:Times;
mso-bidi-font-family:Times;color:#548DD4;mso-themecolor:text2;mso-themetint:
153">AKUOKO<o:p></o:p><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:
115%;font-family:&quot;Book Antiqua&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;mso-fareast-font-family:Times;
mso-bidi-font-family:Times;color:#548DD4;mso-themecolor:text2;mso-themetint:
153">&nbsp;vs.<o:p></o:p><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:
115%;font-family:&quot;Book Antiqua&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;mso-fareast-font-family:Times;
mso-bidi-font-family:Times;color:#548DD4;mso-themecolor:text2;mso-themetint:
153">&nbsp;THE REPUBLIC <o:p></o:p>[COURT OF APPEAL,
ACCRA]<o:p></o:p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;[1974] 2 GLR 103<o:p></o:p><div style="mso-element:para-border-div;border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.5pt;
padding:0in 0in 1.0pt 0in">

DATE:
7 JUNE 1974.<o:p></o:p>

</div>COUNSEL:&nbsp;&nbsp; <o:p></o:p><div style="mso-element:para-border-div;border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.5pt;
padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">

DR. S.
EPHSON FOR THE APPELLANT.<o:p></o:p>

ASAMOAH,
SENIOR STATE ATTORNEY, FOR THE RESPONDENT.<o:p></o:p>

</div>CORAM:
<o:p></o:p><div style="mso-element:para-border-div;border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.5pt;
padding:0in 0in 0in 0in">

APALOO, JIAGGE AND KINGSLEY-NYINAH
JJ.A.<o:p></o:p>

</div><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>JUDGMENT OF JIAGGE J.A.<o:p></o:p>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.<o:p></o:p><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>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.<o:p></o:p><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>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.<o:p></o:p><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>The
appellant went and brought his sister, the wife of the deceased, and she and
the children started to pack their belongings. The deceased suddenly slashed
his wife two or three times with a cutlass and she fell on his daughter. One
Kofi Asirifi who was present threw a stick at the deceased and he fell down.
Asirifi pushed a barrel towards the deceased, the barrel hit him and the
cutlass fell from his hand. The appellant picked up the cutlass and slashed the
deceased three or four times. Asirifi asked the appellant to stop attacking the
deceased and in reply the appellant said that the deceased had killed his
sister. The appellant, however, stopped and went away weeping. The deceased
died later as a result of the injuries inflicted on him by the appellant.<o:p></o:p><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>Some of
the facts were not in dispute at the trial. The appellant however claimed that
he threw the cutlass under pressure when the deceased made him breathless by
pressing tight on his throat, and that he slashed the deceased once in
self-defence to save his own life. The medical officer, however, found on the
body of the deceased, three very severe cuts which produced haemorrhage and the
shock that killed the victim.<o:p></o:p><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>The only
ground of appeal worth consideration was that the learned trial judge failed to
direct the jury adequately on the plea of provocation, and that if the jury had
been properly directed they would have found the appellant guilty of
manslaughter and not of murder.<o:p></o:p><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>In
summing up to the jury, the learned trial judge reviewed the main body of the
evidence in some detail. He read to the jury the whole of section 52 of the
Criminal </main>