YAW APPAU, J.A.
The appellant was charged with the offence of Murder contrary to section 46 of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 [Act 29]. He was tried and found guilty by the jury of the High Court. He was accordingly convicted and sentenced to death as the law required. This was on the 26th day of September 2000. From the record, the alleged offence leading to the trial and conviction of the appellant was committed on the 27th day of November 1994. The particulars of the offence as was stated on the charge sheet read:
“YAW ATTAKPAH (Driver’s Mate) - For that you on or about the 27th day of November 1994 at Abor in the Volta Region, murdered one William Atsitso Adomayor”.
The appellant remained in remand custody for six (6) years before his conviction in the year 2000. Immediately after his conviction, he filed a notice of appeal the following day against his conviction. The only ground of appeal was that the judgment was unreasonable having regard to the evidence on record.
It is unfortunate that it has taken so long a time (i.e. more than eleven years) to determine the appeal due to the demise of appellant’s counsel who filed the appeal on his behalf. The appellant, through his new lawyer, filed his written submissions on 26/10/2011. The respondent responded to the appellant’s submissions on 21/02/2012. However, before I delve into the submissions for and against the contention that the evidence on record did not support the judgment of guilty of murder; I would like to recall the facts that gave birth to the case.
The appellant was a nineteen (19) year old driver’s mate at Abor in the Volta Region of Ghana when the incident leading to his arrest, trial and conviction occurred. He claimed the deceased who was a fourteen (14) year old boy, had accused him falsely for stealing brake fluid. He therefore subjected him to some beatings for accusing him falsely. Six days after the beating by the appellant, the 14 year old boy by name Atsitso Adomayor died before he could receive proper medical attention.
Though the appellant denied throughout his testimony and in his statement to the police that he ever beat up the deceased and that he only held him and threatened to beat him, the evidence from two of the prosecution witnesses who were eyewitnesses to the incident was that, he in fact, beat up the deceased. They gave vivid accounts of what allegedly happened on the night in question. The trial court accepted the testimonies of the prosecution witnesses
