DUAH vs. THE REPUBLIC [1987]DLCA733

Date	1987-07-16
Suit No.
Citation No.	[1987]DLCA733

ABBAN JA

WUAKU JA

AMUA-SEKYI J.A.

DR. EKOW DANIELS FOR THE APPELLANT.

SAM BADDOO CHIEF STATE ATTORNEY FOR THE REPUBLIC.

[1987]DLCA733
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													<main id="main" class="content" style="min-height: 60rem" >DUAH <o:p></o:p>vs. <o:p></o:p>THE REPUBLIC <o:p></o:p>[COURT OF APPEAL, ACCRA]<o:p></o:p>[1987-88] 1 GLR 343<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
16 JULY 1987<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. EKOW DANIELS FOR THE APPELLANT. <o:p></o:p>

SAM BADDOO, CHIEF STATE ATTORNEY, FOR THE
REPUBLIC.<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">

ABBAN, WUAKU AND AMUA-SEKYI JJ.A.<o:p></o:p>

</div><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>JUDGMENT OF ABBAN J.A.<o:p></o:p>Abban
J.A. delivered the judgment of the court. On 12 September 1985 the appellant
was convicted of murder and sentenced to death by the High Court, Accra. It was
against this conviction that he appealed to this court, mainly on grounds of
misdirection and misreception of evidence.<o:p></o:p><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>The
murder charge arose out of the death of one Dr. Agnes Yeboah, aged 26. The
prosecution alleged that the appellant on 12 April 1985 intentionally stabbed
the said Dr. Agnes Yeboah to death with a knife at the housemen’s flats,
Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra,<o:p></o:p><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>The
facts, briefly stated, were that the appellant and the deceased knew each other
in Accra. Later, they met in India where both of them happened to be students.
The appellant’s father was Ghana’s High Commissioner to India at that time, and
the father of the deceased once paid a visit to India and lodged with the
appellant’s father. There was no doubt that the families of the deceased and
the appellant were friendly. The appellant and the deceased, having met once again
in India, they became friends. They developed great affection for each other
and decided to marry on their return to Ghana. But, according to the appellant,
the father of the deceased objected to the intended marriage on various
grounds.<o:p></o:p><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>However,
the deceased and the appellant got married in India and also under the Marriage
ordinance, Cap. 127 (1951 Rev.) in the Registrar-General’s Office, Accra
without the knowledge of the parents of the deceased. The deceased later
brought forth a female child, aged six months at the time of her untimely
death. The parents of the deceased had never been happy about the association
of the deceased with the appellant who had in the meantime been residing in
London and called himself a research scholar of an international organisation.<o:p></o:p><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>He
arrived in Accra from London on 9 April 1985. His mission for coming down was
not very clear. But in his evidence-in-chief, he said he decided “to make a
short visit to Ghana” because from the letters he received from the deceased he
“realised that she was a frustrated” lady. On his arrival in Ghana on the said
9 April 1985 at about 5 pm the appellant booked a room at Lake Bosumtwi Hotel,
Osu. He never filled any forms at that hotel. When it was about 9.30-10 pm, the
appellant said he went to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital “because the deceased
had written to me she was working at the Department of Gynaecology and slept
there at the Korle-Bu flats and alternatively at her father’s airport
residence.”<o:p></o:p><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>The
appellant had been with Dr. Agnes Yeboah from 9 April to the night of 11 April
1985. But before the day break on 12 April 1985 the said Dr. Agnes Yeboah was a
dead woman. She was lying in bed in her room at the doctors’ flats at Korle-Bu
Teaching Hospital with a stab wound. There was no eyewitness as to who and how
the injury was inflicted. The appellant was the last person to see Dr. Agnes
Yeboah alive. So the prosecution relied mainly on circumstantial evidence. I
say mainly, because as it would be shown presently, the appellant himself supplied
some direct evidence, the legal effect of which will be examined in due course.<o:p></o:p><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>In all,
the prosecution called nine witnesses. The evidence of the first prosecution
witness, Asumani Yeboah, the brother of the deceased, showed that the deceased
was not a frustrated lady as contended by the appellant. “She was in happy mood
all those days the appe</main>