ANTHONY ASOMANI @ ANTHONY AWUAH v. THE REPUBLIC

MERLEY WOOD JA:

The Appellant was convicted on 6th February 2014 by the High Court, Sekondi presided over by a judge and a seven man jury for the offences of Conspiracy to Commit Crime to wit Murder contrary to sections 23(1) and 46 of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29) and Murder contrary to section 46 of the same enactment.

He was sentenced to death by hanging.

The brief facts of the charge upon which the Appellant was arraigned are that on10th September 2007 at about 6:00am, while ten year old Emmanuel Kwasi Mensah Sah was sent by his mother to sell corn dough at Sefwi Asafo, the Appellant purchased some on credit and asked him to come for the money later in the day.

The Appellant used some of the corn dough to prepare banku which he ate with the then second accused person Samuel Boah @ Kwaku Boah who died in the course of the trial.

When later in the afternoon the deceased went to collect the money, the Appellant informed him that he did not as yet have the money.

The deceased refused to leave.

At about 4:30 pm a young boy saw the deceased standing on the verandah of the Appellant demanding the money.

When at about 5:30pm the deceased had not returned from hawking, his parents conducted a search for him and caused a gong gong to be beaten in the town but to no avail.

The next day, after PW3, the father of the deceased was informed that the deceased had been last seen on the verandah of the Appellant, the search party went to the house of the Appellant where they saw idols with fresh blood sprinkled on them.

The Appellant when questioned, claimed that the blood was chicken blood.

The search further revealed within the compound, a pit filled with rags as well as the body of the deceased.

After investigations, the Appellant and Samuel Boah @ Kwaku Boah were arraigned on charges of conspiracy to commit crime and murder.

In proof of its case, the prosecution called four witnesses while the Appellant did not call any witnesses.

The Appellant was convicted and sentenced after the jury returned a unanimous verdict against him.

Aggrieved by the conviction and sentence, the Appellant has appealed to this Court on the following grounds as per the Notice of Appeal filed on 31st May 2018 pursuant to leave granted by this Court on 31st May 2018.

1. The verdict cannot be supported having regard to the evidence.

2. Misdirection by Non-direction of the jury on the unreliability of the forensic report.

3. Other grounds of appeal will be filed