RICHMOND KWABLA DZANGMATEY v. REPUBLIC
October 30, 2019
SUPREME COURT
GHANA
CORAM
- DOTSE, JSC (PRESIDING)
- BAFFOE-BONNIE, JSC
- MARFUL-SAU, JSC
- DORDZIE, JSC
- AMEGATCHER, JSC
Areas of Law
- Criminal Law and Procedure
- Evidence Law
October 30, 2019
SUPREME COURT
GHANA
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The Supreme Court of Ghana, per a unanimous opinion delivered by Justice N. A. Amegatcher, dismissed the appeal of Richard Kwabla Dzangmatey from his conviction for the murder of eighteen-year-old schoolgirl Christiana Apafo in Volivo, Eastern Region. Dzangmatey had been convicted by a jury in the High Court, Koforidua, and sentenced to death by hanging. On appeal to the Court of Appeal and then to the Supreme Court, he argued the trial judge misdirected the jury on the burden of proof, was partial in summing-up, and inadequately presented his defenses of self-defense and provocation, rendering the jury’s verdict unreasonable. The Supreme Court reviewed the summing-up holistically, emphasized there is no set formula for jury directions, confirmed the burden of proof remained on the prosecution and that any misdirection must occasion a substantial miscarriage of justice to warrant reversal. Finding none and deferring to the jury’s role as trier of fact, the Court affirmed the conviction and sentence.
THE UNANIMOUS JUDGMENT OF THE COURT IS READ BY AMEGATCHER JSC, AS FOLLOWS-:
N. A. AMEGATCHER JSC
The appellant was convicted of murder by the High Court, Koforidua, after a murder verdict of the jury. Following the conviction, he was sentenced to death by hanging. An eighteen-year-old JSS school girl, Christiana Apafo was the victim of the crime. The appellant lived with the deceased in the same vicinity in Volivo, in the Eastern Region. The parents of the deceased had warned him about his amorous association with the deceased. On 4th March 1995, after the deceased and her father had returned from buying food and her father had gone into his room, the appellant and the deceased engaged in a quarrel which resulted in him stabbing her. When the deceased’s father, who was just next door rushed to the aid of his daughter following shouts from her, the appellant also stabbed him in the neck. The struggle and accompanying shouts attracted a crowd in the area. Some men grabbed the appellant and took him to the police station. Christiana Apafo could not make it as she died almost instantly. In the case of the father, he ended up in hospital with his wounds.
From the perspective of the appellant, the death and attack came out of self-defense. The appellant claimed that the deceased had been pledged to be married to him but that because she was still in school, her father had told him to stay away from her until she was older. According to his testimony, at the time of the murder, the deceased had been pulling and biting on his penis while the father held him at his neck; he claims that he grabbed the bottle and stabbed them both out of self-defense.
The jury was not swayed by the explanation of the appellant after receiving the summing up direction from the trial judge. It returned a verdict of guilty of murder. Dissatisfied with the verdict, the appellant appealed to the Court of appeal on 3rd February 2014 seeking to quash the conviction on four main grounds of appeal: that the trial judge misdirected himself in his summing up to the jury; that the trial judge misdirected the jury in his summing up; that the verdict of the jury is unreasonable in light of the evidence before it; and that the trial judge erred when he failed to consider the defence of the appellant adequately.
On 28th October 2015, the Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal, stating emphatically that not every misdirection or non-direction will persuade an appellate court to allow an appeal, un