THE STATE v. KWADJO OFORI

JUDGMENT OF VAN LARE, J.S.C.

Van Lare JSC delivered the judgment of the court. The evidence including that of the appellant himself is overwhelming in support of the learned trial judge's finding that the appellant attacked his wife in a most savage way and literally butchered her to death because he was uncontrollably jealous and suspected his wife of having committed adultery with one Kwabena Awortwi. For some time previously, the appellant had been under the impression that the deceased, his wife, had been illicitly associating with the man Kwabena Awortwi, a relative who had been staying in the same house with the deceased and her parents. On the morning of the [p.163] fatal day the deceased and her mother were going to the farm, and, not far away from the house, the appellant suddenly appeared, armed with a cutlass and attacked the deceased. The appellant had on the previous evening quarrelled with the deceased, and appeared so angry that he had to be taken home by his wife’s father. On the way to the village according to the evidence, there had been no discussion between the deceased and her mother concerning the appellant, whose name was not even mentioned before his sudden appearance; and the evidence is that without any excuse of any kind, such as the exchange of words or a quarrel, or the deceased even being aware of the appellant’s presence, she was suddenly attacked by him and slashed in several places with a cutlass. In his cautioned statement to the police which he admitted making, he, however, stated that on the fatal morning he was himself going to his farm when he overheard his deceased wife and her mother discussing him, and he became annoyed. The statement continued as follows:

“What annoyed me most was that my mother-in-law told my wife that if she was not successful to divorce my wife from me she would let somebody have sexual intercourse with my wife. She went on to say that if my wife’s daughter was grown enough she would let my wife go to Kwabena Awortwi to have sexual connection with her. After this talk I appeared before them. I told them that I have heard all what they said and that I have seen that the mother-in-law was not in my favour and that if I went to the house to tell the elders what I have heard I would not be believed and so I have finished entirely with the woman. I at once attacked her with my cutlass and I inflicted some wounds on her. Whilst I was inflicting the cutlass wounds on my wife I told my mother-in-law