Lassey J.A. delivered the judgment of the court. The appellant was on 12 November 1965 convicted at the Kumasi Criminal Session of [p.37] the murder of Akosua Kraa, his wife. He has appealed to this court on the substantial ground of misdirection by non-direction, contending that the learned trial judge had wrongly directed the jury upon the law of provocation by failing to tell them the effect which the insulting words of abuse alleged to have been uttered by the deceased and accompanying the slap which she gave the appellant was likely to have had on the appellant, and that had they been rightly directed, they might have found him guilty, not of murder, but of manslaughter only.
The case itself concerns one of the near-domestic disputes which often happen between husband and wife' who live in the rural or farming areas in this country; the relevant facts so far as they bear on the question of provocation may be briefly stated. On or about 18 July 1965 the appellant, who was the deceased's husband and residing at another village, proceeded to see the deceased at Jachic village where she also lived. There the appellant demanded from her payment of a sum of money which he said he had saved with the deceased. The deceased did not dispute liability for the debt but pleaded for time to find the amount to give to the appellant, as she was not in funds at that time. The appellant appeared not to have been favourably disposed to granting the deceased's request for extension of time within which to find the money which the appellant demanded. The deceased further appealed to the appellant to exercise more patience as she had planned to go and raiser a loan with which to pay the debt. It was said the appellant became annoyed at this, and while the deceased was about to leave the house, apparently to go and find the money which the appellant wanted, she was suddenly set upon by the appellant who stabbed her to death with a knife which he had with him and which was hidden in a sheath. According to eyewitnesses' account, the appellant unsheathed the knife from its cover and struck the deceased with it three times. The deceased died at the hospital shortly afterwards.
The appellant did not deny killing the deceased, but said he did so because he was provoked as a result of abuse and a slap which she gave him on the face. He explained that on account of some misunderstanding which arose between him and the deceased previously, the deceased had intimated that she wou
