Maxwell Appah and Tetteh Larweh v. The Republic

SOWAH, J. A. : The appellant was convicted for murder at the High Court, Koforidua on 28th July 2011, and duly sentenced to death.

Aggrieved by his conviction, the appellant filed his petition of appeal on 2nd August 2011 with the following grounds of appeal: 1. The verdict cannot be supported having regard to the evidence.

2. Misdirection of res gestae 3. Misdirection on admissibility and weight of dying declaration 4. Misdirection on non-production of material witness.

5. Further grounds of appeal would be filed on receipt of the record of proceedings The facts as presented to the court and jury were that the appellantwas the mate of the 2nd accused.

Together with two other persons, they were returning from the bush with sawn logs when their KIA truck was stuck in the mud in Ahankrasu village.

The villagers suspected them of engaging in illegal sawing of logs so the chief was informed.

He ordered the logs to be off-loaded.

The deceased had climbed the truck to do so when the 2nd accused [driver] ordered his mate [the appellant] to get on board and they sped off, ignoring the shouts of bystanders that the deceased was on the truck.

A taxi driver gave chase a few minutes later but did not see the deceased on the truck.

When he [the taxi driver] was returning, he found the deceased lying on the road badly injured.

He rushed to the village for help.

Some youth accompanied him to bring the deceased to the chiefs’ palace and thence to the hospital where the deceased died the evening of the same day.

The deceased told PW5, the medical assistant who attended to him at Enyiresi Hospital that the appellant had pushed him from the moving truck.

Other witnesses [PW2 and PW3] also said the deceased told them that the appellant had managed to climb to the back of the moving truck and pushed him off.

Both accused persons were charged with Conspiracy to commit crime to wit murder contrary to Section 23 (1) and 46 of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 Act, 29, whilst the appellant alone was charged with Murdercontrary to Section 46 of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 Act 29. The trial judge upheld a submission of no case, and acquitted and discharged both of them of the charge of conspiracy.

The trial of the appellant for murder proceeded and ended with his conviction.

The first ground of appeal places this court under a duty to rehear the case by evaluating the entire record of appeal to determine if the conviction is supportable by the evidence.