DOUGLAS AFRIYIE & 10 ORS v. THE REPUBLIC
November 9, 2022
SUPREME COURT
GHANA
CORAM
- DOTSE JSC (PRESIDING)
- AMEGATCHER JSC
- PROF. KOTEY JSC
- TORKORNOO (MRS.) JSC
- KULENDI JSC
Areas of Law
- Criminal Law and Procedure
- Evidence Law
- Constitutional Law
November 9, 2022
SUPREME COURT
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The Supreme Court of Ghana, per Justice V. J. M. Dotse, delivered reasons for its unanimous decision dismissing the 1st accused/appellant’s appeal from the Court of Appeal. The case arises from an April 8, 2007 incident in Atronie where a group of young men, including the appellant, attacked a vehicle transporting the deceased Anthony Yeboah Boateng, his wife Cecilia (a Catholic Nun), and others, mistakenly believing the driver to be a serial killer. The mob barricaded the road, pulled Boateng from the car, and beat and stabbed him to death; his Audi GR 844-V was vandalized. A jury in the High Court, Sunyani, convicted the appellant of conspiracy to commit murder, murder, and causing unlawful damage, imposing two death sentences and a 20-year term concurrently. The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal, relying in part on State v Anane. Before the Supreme Court, the appellant advanced grounds focused on alleged non-direction and deficient summing-up. The Supreme Court acknowledged imperfections but found no substantial miscarriage of justice, holding that the prosecution proved the elements beyond reasonable doubt under the Evidence Act, NRCD 323, supported by eye-witness testimony and the appellant’s confession, and accordingly affirmed the lower courts.
PREAMBLE
DOTSE JSC:-
On the 9th of November 2022, this court by a unanimous decision dismissed this appeal by the appellant against the decision of the Court of Appeal which was rendered on the 29th of June 2012. But we reserved our reasons for the said decision which we now proceed to give.
Thomas Hutchinson, a US. Statesman of International repute, in his writings titled “Charge to the Grand jury” in Quincy’s Reports, 232, 234 published in 1767 stated as follows:-
“There is one general observation I would make; that the End of Government is the Happiness of every individual, so far as is consistent with the Good of the Whole. To attain this End is impossible without laws, and their due execution. Tis necessary that Laws should be established, else Judges and Juries must go according to their Reason, that is their will; and this is in the strictest sense arbitrary. On this Reason, I take to be grounded that well known maxim, that the Judge should never be the Legislator: Because, then, the will of the Judge would be the Law; and this tends directly to a state of slavery. The Rules and orders of a state must be known, and must be certain, that the people may know how to act, or else they are equally uncertain, as if the Law depended upon the arbitrary opinion of another.”
See “The Quotable Founding Fathers” edited by Buckner F. Melton Jr. pages 194-195.
The above statement is very appropriate to the circumstances under which the 1st accused/appellant/appellant hereafter referred to as the appellant, finds himself. Fact of the matter is that, he must be deemed to be aware of the consequences of his act or actions that night. Let us take note of the following:-
i.That, there also exists laws and judicial processes under which he was arrested, investigated, prosecuted and convicted.
ii.That it is also because of the certainty and clarity of the due processes that the appellant has had the opportunity to appeal up to the present level of the judicial ladder.
iii.That, in all these, the personal will and idiosyncrasies of the judges does not matter, rather it is the laws of the state that are applicable and have indeed been applied so far.
We are therefore of the view that, persons of full age and maturity like the appellant whatever the circumstances they find themselves in, must be prepared to act reasonably, and if they act otherwise, then must be prepared to accept the consequences thereof.
COMMENCEMENT AND FACTS
The appellant herein was the 1st