DABLA v. THE STATE

JUDGMENT OF BLAY J.S.C.

Blay J.S.C. delivered the judgment of the court. The appellant, who was charged with the murder of his wife one Akuia Agbozo, was tried in the High Court, Accra, presided over by Akainyah J. sitting with a jury. He was convicted of the charge by the unanimous verdict of the jury after what appears to be a careful summing-up by the learned trial judge.

Against this conviction he has appealed to this court on the ground. "That the learned trial judge was wrong in that he directed the jury that a vivid recollection by the accused of the incidents at the time of the killing [p.16] negatived or tended to negative insanity." To this ground of appeal three more were added and argued with the leave of the court as follows:

"(a) That the learned trial judge misdirected by non-direction as to the standard of proof in a defence of insanity, (b) that the verdict was unreasonable having regard to the evidence adduced at the trial, and (c) that the learned trial judge misdirected himself and the jury on the defence of self-defence."

The facts of the case which were not seriously contested at the trial may shortly be put as follows: The appellant and his three wives, including the deceased, lived at a village called Akronya. It appears that he and his three wives slept in one room and had done so for many years without untoward incidents.

However, a week before Christmas in 1961, the appellant started to behave in a queer manner towards his wives, generally. The evidence of one of his wives Nyonuvi Nutsugah at the trial is as follows:

"One week before Christmas last year the accused started to do something which he had not done before. At night when we went to sleep, the accused tied ropes round the waist of each one of us [the three wives] and tied the ends of the ropes round his own waist. The accused did not give us reason for tying us up, but I asked him why he was now tying us up tonight. Accused's reply was that, if he did not do that, we would run away. One of us slept with the accused on a bed and the other two slept on mats on the floor of the room. About ten months ago at about 4 o'clock in the early morning, the accused took all three wives of his into his farm near the village. In the farm, the accused asked us to mention the names of the men who were having sexual intercourse with us. Each of us denied that other men were having sexual intercourse with her. After our denials, the accused raised up a cutlass which he carried