JUDGMENT OF ABBAN J.A.
Abban J.A. delivered the judgment of the court. On 12 September 1985 the appellant was convicted of murder and sentenced to death by the High Court, Accra. It was against this conviction that he appealed to this court, mainly on grounds of misdirection and misreception of evidence.
The murder charge arose out of the death of one Dr. Agnes Yeboah, aged 26. The prosecution alleged that the appellant on 12 April 1985 intentionally stabbed the said Dr. Agnes Yeboah to death with a knife at the housemen's flats, Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra,
The facts, briefly stated, were that the appellant and the deceased knew each other in Accra. Later, they met in India where both of them happened to be students. The appellant's father was Ghana's High Commissioner to India at that time, and the father of the deceased once paid a visit to India and lodged with the appellant's father. There was no doubt that the families of the deceased and the appellant were friendly. The appellant and the deceased, having met once again in India, they became friends. They developed great affection for each other and decided to marry on their return to Ghana. But, according to [p.347] the appellant, the father of the deceased objected to the intended marriage on various grounds.
However, the deceased and the appellant got married in India and also under the Marriage ordinance, Cap. 127 (1951 Rev.) in the Registrar-General's Office, Accra without the knowledge of the parents of the deceased. The deceased later brought forth a female child, aged six months at the time of her untimely death. The parents of the deceased had never been happy about the association of the deceased with the appellant who had in the meantime been residing in London and called himself a research scholar of an international organisation.
He arrived in Accra from London on 9 April 1985. His mission for coming down was not very clear. But in his evidence-in-chief, he said he decided "to make a short visit to Ghana" because from the letters he received from the deceased he "realised that she was a frustrated" lady. On his arrival in Ghana on the said 9 April 1985 at about 5 pm the appellant booked a room at Lake Bosumtwi Hotel, Osu. He never filled any forms at that hotel. When it was about 9.30-10 pm, the appellant said he went to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital "because the deceased had written to me she was working at the Department of Gynaecology and slept there at the Korle-Bu flat
