JUDGMENT OF LAMPTEY J.A.
Lamptey J. A. delivered the judgment of the court. On 16 April 1987 Pastor George Adabire Israel Apasere of the Assemblies of God Church at Duusi in the Upper East Region of Ghana engaged a number of men to mould blocks for him. Around 9.30 am of that day, Pastor Apasere heard an alarm while at work with these men. He investigated the cause of the alarm and learnt that, "the Duusi chief and his subjects had gone to harvest dawadawa fruits and some people armed with bows and arrows had surrounded them and were shooting at them." Pastor Apasere immediately found a vehicle and caused it to be driven to the Bolgatanga Police Station where he made a report of what he had heard. A detachment of policemen was as a result of the report despatched to Yale village to stop the fighting and restore and maintain peace. At the sight of the policemen the combatants fled from the scene of battle. After the dust of battle had settled it was discovered that this regrettable skirmish had resulted in the death of two persons. The seven appellants before this court were charged on two counts of murder and tried by a judge and jury at the criminal assizes holden at Bolgatanga. Each of the seven appellants was convicted of the offence of murder and sentenced to death according to the law. Each of the seven appellants is dissatisfied with his conviction and sentence and appealed to this court on four original and five additional grounds of appeal.
The first ground of appeal argued by the learned counsel for the appellants was stated as follows: "the verdict is unreasonable and cannot be supported having regard to the evidence." In arguing this ground of appeal, learned counsel took the court through the evidence of the first and second prosecution witnesses, the only eyewitnesses of what took place on that fateful day. He sought to show that the evidence of the first prosecution witness did not corroborate that of the second prosecution witness on material issues. He contended that the evidence given by the first and second prosecution witnesses considered together failed to show and identify the person or persons who shot the fatal arrows at the two deceased persons. He contended that the trial judge failed to direct the jury properly on the facts and the law. He submitted that the judge had misdirected the jury by non direction hence the jury returned a perverse verdict. In reply the learned chief state attorney defended the verdict on the ground that
