JUDGMENT OF AZU CRABBE J.S.C.
Azu Crabbe J.S.C. delivered the judgment of the court. The appellant was convicted at the Sekondi Criminal Session on 27 January 1970 of the murder of one Aba Yaa and was sentenced by Edusei J. to death. On 5 March 1971 we dismissed the appellant’s appeal against his conviction and intimated that we would give reasons at a later date. We now proceed to give the reasons.
[p.142]
There is no doubt in this case that the deceased died of gun-shot wounds, and the only issue at the trial was whether it was the appellant who shot the deceased.
The facts fall within a very narrow compass. The appellant and the deceased were married for about twenty years, but the marriage had been dissolved about two-and-a-half months before the death of the deceased, and the appellant’s dowry of N¢10.30 had been returned to him by the mother of the deceased. On 16 April 1968 at about 6 a.m. the deceased went to the house of one Ekua Amissah (second prosecution witness) to ask for water to prepare kenkey. The appellant and Ekua Amissah lived in the same house. Meanwhile, the mother of the deceased who was paying a visit to her daughter had, so it appears, followed the deceased to the house of Ekua Amissah. As Ekua Amissah went into the kitchen and was fetching the water for the deceased, she heard the report of a gun. She immediately came out of the kitchen and saw the appellant holding a gun, and the deceased lying on the ground and bleeding profusely on the right side of her head. Ekua Amissah raised an alarm, and before anyone came to the scene, the appellant placed the gun against a wall and disappeared. The mother of the deceased also saw the appellant, as he placed the gun against the wall and fled through a lane. Neither Ekua Amissah, nor the mother of the deceased, actually saw the appellant shoot at the deceased. But shortly after the incident in the house of Ekua Amissah, the appellant went to the Kojokrom Police Station and there reported to two police officers on duty that he had shot and killed his wife, and was surrendering himself. This confession was made in the presence of the tenth witness for the prosecution, one Kofi Badu, who had gone to the police station on his own business. According to these police officers, an entry was made in the station diary of the report made to them by the appellant. One of the police officers took the appellant to the scene of crime, where the appellant pointed to a gun placed against a wall and
