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JAMES KOFI ADDO ALIAS KWAME ADUMATTA
V.
THE QUEEN
WEST AFRICAN COURT OF APPEAL, HOLDEN AT ACCRA, GOLD COAST
5TH DAY OF JANUARY, 1954
2PLR/1954/36 (WACA)
OTHER CITATION(S)
2PLR/1954/36 (WACA)
(1954) XIII WACA PP. 406 – 407
LEX (1954) – XIV WACA 406 – 407
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BEFORE THEIR LORDSHIPS:
FOSTER-SUTTON, P.,
COUSSEY, J. A.,
WINDSOR-AUBREY, J.
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BETWEEN:
JAMES KOFI ADDO ALIAS KWAME ADUMATTA – Appellant
AND
THE QUEEN – Respondent
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ORIGINATING COURT(S)
Appeal by person convicted of murder: No. 52/53
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REPRESENTATION
Appellant in person
Arpec Agi, Crown Counsel — for the Crown
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ISSUE(S) FROM THE CAUSE(S) OF ACTION
CRIMINAL LAW AND PROCEDURE – MURDER:- Uxorixide (wife-killing) – Appeals in Criminal Cases – Evidence of insanity received on appeal but rejected in trial – Post trial certification of insanity – How treated
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CASE SUMMARY
The appellant, for no reason, killed his wife. He testified that something came over him and he “became like a crazy man”. The defence of insanity failed at the trial. Later the convict was certified insane, and the Court of Appeal decided to call the Psychiatrist Specialist, who testified that the convict suffered from insanity with epilepsy and must have been in a state of epileptic automatism when he killed his wife.
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DECISION(S) OF THE WEST AFRICAN COURT OF APPEAL
Held (quashing the sentence ordering for detention as a criminal lunatic):
1. Since the trial and conviction for murder of the appellant, the appellant has been certified insane, and in view of that circumstance and of the complete lack of motive for the crime, it is open to the appellate court to receive further evidence from a Psychiatrist Specialist in regard to the claim of insanity.
2. Had the evidence, of being medically certified insane, been given at the trial, the appellant would have been found guilty but insane at the time the offence was committed.
3. Sentenced quashed. Appellant to be kept in custody as a criminal lunatic in the Mental Hospital, Accra, until the Governor’s pleasure be known.
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MAIN JUDGMENT
The following judgment was delivered:
FOSTER-SUTTON, P.
This was an application for leave to appeal against a conviction for murder. Following our usual practice in such cases we have treated it as an appeal.
The appellant was convicted of the murder of his wife by striking her with a cutlass at the back of her neck. The cutlass penetrated the skin muscles and the vertebrae, and lacerated the spinal cord. The appellant did not deny inflicting the injury which caused the woman’s death, but stated that he and his wife had no previous quarrel and that on the day in question they were busy weeding at her mother’s farm when something came over him and he “became like a crazy man” and threw the cutlass at her. The deceased woman’s mother, called as a witness by the prosecution, who accompanied them to the farm, supported the appellant’s statement that he and his wife had no quarrel and were happy together.
The onus of proving that the appellant was prevented, by reason of some mental derangement or disease affecting the mind, from knowing the nature or consequences of the act in respect of which he was accused, was upon him, and apart from some general observations made during his cross-examination by the medical officer called by the prosecution, and the evidence of the appellant, no evidence justifying a verdict of guilty but insane was led at the trial. That being so we are of the opinion that, upon the evidence then before the Court, the verdict pronounced was a correct one.
Since the trial, however, the appellant has been certified insane, and in view of that circumstance and of the complete lack of motive for the crime we decided to call as a witness Dr. Forster, the Psychiatrist Specialist. He testified that he first examined the appellant on the 18th June, 1953, and has had him under his observation since the 20th June, that he is suffering from insanity with epilepsy and that in his opinion the offence in this case was committed when the appellant was in a state of epileptic automatism, and that he is now a patient in the Mental Hospital, Accra.
If this evidence had been given at the trial we are satisfied that the Court would have returned a verdict of guilty but insane at the time the offence was committed.
In these circumstances we quash the sentence passed at the trial and order that the appellant be kept in custody as a criminal lunatic in the Mental Hospital, Accra, until the Governor’s pleasure be known.
Sentence quashed; order for detention as a criminal lunatic.
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