JOSEPH KWASI QUARSHIE v. THE REPUBLIC
2018
COURT OF APPEAL
GHANA
CORAM
- GYAESAYOR, JA (PRESIDING)
- AMADU, JA
- SUURBAAREH, JA
Areas of Law
- Criminal Law and Procedure
- Evidence Law
- Constitutional Law
2018
COURT OF APPEAL
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
Joseph Kwasi Quarshie was convicted of murder after his girlfriend was found with fatal stab wounds, which he claimed resulted from a struggle during which she initially attacked him. The conviction was primarily based on compelling circumstantial evidence and the eyewitness testimony, which the jury found credible. The appeals court upheld the conviction, citing that the burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt was met, and noted that the jury's verdict should stand due to the proper instructions given by the trial judge. A dissenting opinion argued for reducing the conviction to manslaughter, noting insufficient evidence of the specific intent to kill. The areas of law involved included Criminal Law and Procedure, Evidence Law, and Constitutional Law.
JUDGMENT
GYAESAYOR, JA
The Appellant herein, Joseph Kwasi Quarshie, was tried and convicted of the offence of murder contrary to section 46 of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29). The facts are well rehearsed in the record of appeal. For the avoidance of doubt however, I repeat them.
The complainant is a professional driver and the father of Naomi Wapeah Ayagah, the deceased in this case. Both of them lived together at Maamobi whereas the accused a welder lived at Alajo. On 22/10/2012 at about 10:30pm the deceased’s father, the complainant in the case overheard his daughter exchanging words with somebody on her cell phone and so he demanded to know who that person was and she told him that it was her boyfriend, the accused person in the case. A few minutes after the call she told her father that she was proceeding to Alajo that night because the accused had asked her to come and pack her dirty dresses from his room. The complainant and his son persuaded her not to go and that it was late but she insisted that she wanted to go and pack her things so she left. Sometime later after she left, a taxi cab pulled up in front of the complainant’s house and the accused who was also an occupant of the taxi came out and informed the deceased’s father that he had been stabbed with a knife by the deceased and needed medical attention. The complainant then saw his daughter in a pool of blood with stab wounds lying down at the back of the taxicab. The complainant escorted the two of them to the Ridge Hospital at Accra. The complainant’s daughter, the deceased was pronounced dead on arrival. That night the medical officer invited the police, after examining the wound of the accused and he was treated, discharged and handed over to them that same night. Investigations revealed that, when the deceased arrived in the house of the accused, there was a misunderstanding between the two of them and in the course of it the accused stabbed the left breast of the deceased with a kitchen knife after which he cut himself twice with the knife. He denied stabbing the deceased and stated in his statement that he did not know how the deceased sustained the stab wounds and that it must have been in the course of the struggle that the knife cut the deceased.
The grounds of appeal as stated in the notice of appeal and the additional grounds filed are set forth:
GROUNDS OF APPEAL
(a) The verdict of the Jury was unreasonable in the light of the evidence before the court.
(b1) That