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May 23, 2023
CIRCUIT COURT
GHANA
CORAM
JUDGMENT
INTRODUCTION CUM PRELIMINARY REMARKS2
In Dexter Johnson v. The Republic [2011] 2 SCGLR 601 @ 663 Dotse JSC made reference to a
statement by Lord Viscount Sankey L. C. in Woolmington v. Director of Public Prosecutions
[1935] AC 462, to wit:
“Throughout the web of the English Criminal law, the golden thread is always to be seen, that
it is the duty of the prosecution to prove the prisoner’s guilt…if at the end of, and on the
whole of the case, there is a reasonable doubt, created by the evidence given by either the
prosecution or the prisoner… the prosecution has not made out the case and the prisoner is
entitled to an acquittal. No matter what the charge or where the trial, the principle that the
prosecution must prove the guilt of the prisoner is part of the common law of England and no
attempt to whittle it down can be entertained.”
So, it is for Ghanaian Criminal Law in respect of an accused person. Thus, in Ghana, when a
person is charged with a criminal offence, the prosecution is saddled with an uphill task to
establish the guilt of the accused person. The prosecution ought to produce ample and cogent
evidence to seek to persuade the court that, indeed and in fact, the accused person is worthy
of condemnation in the eyes of the law, as the investigative mechanism of the prosecution has
established.
Section 11 of the Evidence Act, 1975(NRCD 323) defines “Burden of Producing Evidence” and
states further as follows:
(1) For the purposes of this Decree, the burden of producing evidence means the obligation of
a party to introduce sufficient evidence to avoid a ruling against him on the issue.
(2) In a criminal action the burden of producing evidence, when it is on the prosecution as to
any fact which is essential to guilt, requires the prosecution to produce sufficient evidence so
that on all the evidence a reasonable mind could find the existence of the fact beyond a
reasonable doubt.3
(3) In a criminal action the burden of producing evidence, when it is on the accused as to any
fact the converse of which is essential to guilt, requires the accused to produce sufficient
evidence so that on all the evidence a reasonable mind could have a reasonable doubt as to
guilt.
(4) In other circumstances the burden of producing evidence requires a party to produce
sufficient evidence so that on all the evidence a reasonable mind could conclude that the
existence of the fact was more probable than its non-existence.
Secti
AI Generated Summary
The Circuit Court at Dunkwa-On-Offin, presided by His Honour Yaw Poku Achampong, tried scrap dealer Kwabena Adjei on four counts arising from a confrontation with shop operators Victor Kuwornu and Bismark Tawiah. The court found that Adjei initially took a phone from a table, later returned with a cutlass demanding money, and, after the phone and cutlass were retrieved, returned again and attacked Victor with a broken bottle causing multiple lacerations. Despite defects in the medical report and the doctor’s absence, the court relied on corroborated witness testimony and photographs. Applying Act 29 and NRCD 323 evidentiary standards, the court acquitted Adjei of stealing due to lack of mens rea, convicted him of carrying an offensive weapon without lawful authority and causing unlawful harm, and struck out the use of offensive weapon count for lack of jurisdiction. The court rejected self-defence, characterizing the encounter as an unlawful fight. Sentences of six months (Count Two) and three years (Count Four) were imposed, to run concurrently.