GH - AKRONG AND ANOTHER v. THE REPUBLIC

JUDGMENT OF ABOAGYE J.

On 20 June 1972, the applicants were convicted by the District Court Grade I, Korle Gonno, of the offence of assault and each of them was sentenced to a term of four months' imprisonment with hard labour. The next day 21 June 1972, they filed notices of appeal in this court against their conviction. Their grounds of appeal are:

“(1) That the conviction was wrong having regard to the evidence.

(2) That the magistrate was prejudiced in convicting the accused.

(3) That the charge was not proved by the prosecution.

(4) That the magistrate having found that the accused were provoked was wrong in convicting them.

Other grounds to be filed."

Pending the hearing and determination of the appeal the applicants have applied to this court under section 332 (1) of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1960 (Act 30), for bail on the ground that they have every hope of succeeding in the appeal but having regard to the shortness of the sentence it is possible that the proceedings might not be ready before the expiration of the term.

At the hearing of the application, learned counsel for the applicants argued that it would take some time to get the necessary record of the proceedings prepared and since the legal vacation starts at the end of this month (July 1972) it is most unlikely that the appeal will be heard before next October, by which time the applicants would have served the whole or a substantial portion of their sentence.

In opposing the application Mr. Hayfron-Benjamin, counsel for the Republic, argued that the conviction of the applicants is presumed to be right and that since on the authority of State v. Halm, Court of Appeal, 27 July 1967, unreported, once there is no copy of the proceedings [p.246] before this court to enable me to say whether or not the appeal by the applicants has any chance of success, the application for bail must be refused. Learned attorney argued further that the fact that a sentence is short and that it might be served before an appeal is heard cannot by itself be a ground for allowing an application for bail pending the determination of the appeal. That fact, he continued, must be coupled with the fact that the appeal has a reasonable chance of success. In support of this submission counsel quoted a passage from the ruling of the Court of Appeal in the Halm case (supra) delivered by Akufo-Addo C.J. (as he then was).

In their ruling in the Halm case the Court of Appeal stated that, "The principles upon whic