2015
SUPREME COURT
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The Supreme Court dismissed the appeal of Noble Adu Gyamfi, who was convicted of murder after being found in possession of the deceased's car and exhibiting suspicious behavior shortly after the deceased was last seen alive. The court relied heavily on circumstantial evidence, ruling that it was sufficient to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. The appeal raised issues regarding the weight of evidence, the harshness of the death sentence, and the sufficiency of circumstantial evidence. The court held that the evidence against the Appellant was strong and overwhelming, and the jury had been adequately directed. Thus, the conviction and sentence were upheld.
ADINYIRA (MRS) JSC-
Your Lordships permit me to start with this preamble:
“It has been said that the evidence against the appellant is circumstantial, so it is but circumstantial evidence is very often the best. It is evidence of surrounding circumstances which by undersigned coincidence is capable of proving a proposition with the accuracy of mathematics. It is no derogation of evidence to say that it is circumstantial.”
Per Lord Hewart C.J. in R. v. Taylor [1928] 21 CR. App. R 20 at 21
On 21 October 2008, Noble Adu Gyamfi (the Appellant) was convicted and sentenced to death for conspiracy, with one other person at large, to commit murder and murder of Paul Feghali a Lebanese national resident in Ghana.
On 21 November 2013, the Court of Appeal, quashed the conviction and sentence on the conspiracy charge; but affirmed the conviction and sentence on the charge for murder
The Appellant being dissatisfied appealed to this Court on the grounds that:
The conviction for murder is against the weight of evidence.
There was no direct evidence to connect the Appellant to the charge of murder and that the prosecution sought to do so by circumstantial evidence.
The sentence of death by hanging is too harsh.
That the prosecution did not prove beyond reasonable doubt the five ingredients of the crime of murder against the Appellant.
The facts upon which the Appellant was convicted were that, on 7 August 2005, the deceased left his house at Tesano, Accra at about 8.30am in his Nissan Murano car to play golf at the Celebrity Golf Club Tema. At 9 am the Appellant called Reduan Zakour, PW2, a car dealer and whom he used to drive, to come to Rhosanty Hotel to buy a car a friend was selling. Thomas Sogbor, PW4, a caddy at the Celebrity Golf Club said he saw the deceased drive past him at Community 13 not very far from the Celebrity Golf club. When he went to the Club he did not see the deceased and he assumed he was playing golf. When asked about the time he saw the deceased driving past, he said it was around 9.30 am.
Francis Ayamba, PW1, a security man at the Rhosanty Hotel said at about 10.30am the Appellant and another man drove a car later identified as the deceased’s to the hotel and parked it behind the building contrary to his instruction that he should park in front at the parking lot, and left. The appellant and his accomplice brought a taxi and removed two golf bags from the Nissan into it and went out leaving the taxi parked behind the Nissan Murano