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March 26, 1971
COURT OF APPEAL
CORAM
JUDGMENT OF APALOO J.A.
Apaloo J.A. delivered the judgment of the court. On 11 December 1970, the appellant was convicted by Koi Larbi J.S.C., sitting with a jury, of the manslaughter of Joseph Benjamin Ofosu Koranteng and was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment with hard labour. The facts on which the prosecution relied are simple. Although it is not possible to reconcile completely the testimony of the various witnesses, the gist of the case which the Republic made against the appellant was as follows: At some time after 10 p.m. on 28 February 1970 the deceased and his nephew Asae were having a meal in their room. They then heard somebody call out to the deceased by name. That person was obviously in a fighting mood and challenged the deceased to a fight. The deceased came out of the room and the person uttered threats to him. That person was the [p.344] appellant who then held a bottle. He and the deceased apparently exchanged words but not blows. Shortly after this, the appellant left in the direction of a bar described as Ayee Moko Sane. At the time the appellant left for the bar, the deceased sat in a lane through which the appellant passed. The latter threw a beer bottle at the deceased. He followed this up with stones. This apparently infuriated the deceased who chased the appellant and eventually caught up with him. The deceased and the appellant then fought and it seems clear that the deceased who then had an army belt beat the appellant with it. The evidence suggests that as the appellant was unarmed and was having the worst of the fight, he ran into the yard of the bar and emerged shortly afterwards with a knife. The fight apparently resumed and the evidence shows that when the deceased again began striking him with the belt, the appellant for his part, stabbed the left part of the deceased's chest with the knife. The deceased was rushed in a taxicab to the Military Hospital but succumbed to his injuries that very night.
The appellant disputed this version of the facts. His version, put shortly, was this: On the night in question, he was passing through a lane which had become slippery and muddy with rain when he tripped and nearly fell. Some by-standers, about five in number, jeered at him. This resulted in an altercation between them. This soon developed into a fight in which the five men beat him with army belts. As he was getting the worst of the fighting he escaped, but the people chased him and caught up with him at a distance of a
AI Generated Summary
The Ghana Court of Appeal, per Apaloo J.A. delivering the judgment of the court and sitting with Jiagge and Sowah JJ.A, reviewed the conviction of an unnamed appellant for the manslaughter of Joseph Benjamin Ofosu Koranteng following a late-night confrontation near the Ayee Moko Sane bar on 28 February 1970. The trial before Koi Larbi J.S.C. and a jury resulted in a seven-year sentence. The prosecution’s narrative, accepted by the jury, was that after the appellant threw a bottle and stones, the deceased chased him; the appellant retreated into the bar’s yard, returned with a knife, and stabbed the left chest of the deceased, who died shortly after at the Military Hospital. Grounds of appeal included the trial judge’s refusal to withdraw the case under section 271 of Act 30, alleged lack of nexus and causation absent medical evidence, and a claim of necessary self-defence under section 37 of Act 29. The Court held the circumstantial evidence cogent, found medical proof non-essential, rejected self-defence, affirmed the conviction, and reduced the sentence to four years given the appellant’s youth and first-offender status.