JUDGMENT OF OLLENNU J.A.
Ollennu J.A. delivered the judgment of the court. The appellant was convicted of murder by the High Court, Kumasi, upon the verdict of a jury.
The facts of the case are very simple; briefly, they are as follows: The appellant, a mason by trade, lived in Atonsu village near Asukwa, Kumasi. On 7 December 1965, a complaint was made to the police at Asukwa against the appellant by a man, not called as a witness by the prosecution, and who, from the cross-examination of the appellant, appears to be a co-tenant with the appellant, that the appellant had threatened to kill him.
Pursuant to that report the deceased, a police constable, went to the house where the appellant lived and invited him to go with him to the police station; he met the appellant sitting on a mat on the floor [p.718] in his room and asked him to get up and go with him; the appellant refused. The first prosecution witness who also entered the room told the appellant to comply with the request of the police. The appellant then told the two of them to get out of his room. The policeman thereupon told the appellant that he had seen a hammer in his room and would take it to the police station as the complainant had alleged that he the appellant had threatened to kill him.
The constable and the first prosecution witness then started to go out of the room. The first prosecution witness was the first to step out of the room when suddenly he heard behind him a sound as if something had been struck; he turned round and saw the door closed. He pushed it open, and saw the constable lying on the floor, and the appellant standing with a hammer in his hand ready to strike. The first prosecution witness then jumped onto the verandah of the house and ran to the police station where he reported the incident; but before he arrived there, the man who had made the complaint and who apparently was also present at the scene, had already got there and reported that the appellant had killed the constable.
A carpenter, the second prosecution witness, who was going towards the house of the appellant just about that time, rushed to the house in consequence of a noise he heard. On arrival he found the constable lying on the verandah in front of the appellant's room, and the appellant striking the constable with a hammer. He turned round to go, but the appellant struck him on the back of his head with the hammer and he immediately lost consciousness; he regained consciousness in hospital a
