BABA MUSAH VS THE REPUBLIC
2015
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
- HIS LORDSHIP JUSTICE R. B. BATU (J)
Areas of Law
- Criminal Law and Procedure
2015
HIGH COURT
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The case involves an appeal against a 20-year sentence for incest. The appellant, convicted of having sex with and impregnating his daughter, sought mitigation based on the harshness of the sentence and his status as a first-time offender. The High Court, while acknowledging the severity of the crime, found the original sentence excessive. It emphasized the need to balance deterrence with the possibility of reformation. Citing precedent that deterrent sentences should be harsh yet informative, the court reduced the sentence to 10 years, aiming to allow for potential rehabilitation while still serving as a deterrent.
Appellant was tried for and convicted for the offence of incest under Section 105(1) of Act 29/60. He was sentenced to twenty (20) years imprisonment.
The brief facts were that, he on four different occasions had sex with his biological daughter Gifty Mensah and impregnated her.
His appeal was by way of a mitigation of sentence on grounds that the sentence was hash in the circumstances of the case, that he was remorseful, that he is a first offender and that he be given to the chance to go and work to support the victim who is unemployed and vulnerable.
Before me he appeared to maintain the stance he took at the trial, that he did not in fact commit the offence.
At the trial the victim was said to be two months pregnant then.
To test the truthfulness of that claim it was ordered that the child the product of the pregnancy be produced for the purpose of an order for a DNA test to be conducted to determine whether the appellant could have fathered the child.
After several adjournments the report was that that child had died.
The appellant’s allegation could therefore not be put to the test. The conviction based on the evidence before the trial court therefore stands.
The learned State Attorney opposed the plea for mitigation of sentence pointing out that the offence of incest carries a punishment of a minimum of three (3) years and maximum of twenty-five (25) years imprisonment and that the learned judge took into consideration all the necessary surrounding circumstances before imposing the punishment.
From the judgment the circumstances the learned judge stated as influencing the sentence were that, that conduct is taboo in the area appellant hails from as well as other societies in Ghana, that the ‘Holy Writ’ also abhors the practice and that, that offence is on the increase.
There is no indication that the fact of the appellant being a first offender or any other mitigating factor was taken into consideration.
The learned judge also indicated that he was imposing a sentence severe enough to deter the appellant and other fathers from sleeping with their own daughters.
As the leaned State Attorney rightly pointed out referring to Taylor J (as he then was)’s judgment in KWADWO VS. THE REPUBLIC 1971 GLR 272 a deterrent sentence should be harsh enough to be deterrent and short enough to be informative.
The sentence of twenty years imposed here is close to the maximum permissible sentence of twenty-five years.
From the facts of the case given by t