COURT OF APPEAL, ACCRA
Date: 22 NOVEMBER 1973
SOWAH JA
CASE REFERRED TO
Lamptey alias Morocco v. The Republic [1974] 1 G.L.R. 165, C.A.
NATURE OF PROCEEDINGS
APPEAL against conviction and sentence for manslaughter by the High Court, Accra. The facts are set out in the judgment.
COUNSEL
Okyere-Darkoh for the appellant.
S. E. Asamoah, Senior State Attorney, for the Republic.
[p.175] of [1974] 1 GLR 174
JUDGMENT OF SOWAH JA
Sowah J.A. delivered the judgment of the court. We have listened carefully to the able submission made by Mr. Okyere-Darkoh in his attack on the conviction of the appellant but in the end he had to concede that with the evidence as it stood no reasonable jury could have brought in any other verdict than that the appellant was guilty of manslaughter. He, however, submitted that the totality of the evidence indicated that the deceased was the aggressor all through this unfortunate incident. He referred to the evidence of the principal witnesses which showed that there was no previous animosity between the appellant and the deceased.
The appellant had gone to the Credo Bar to have a drink and was sitting at a table quite different from that at which the deceased and his friends were. The deceased had a quarrel with one of his own friends and a fight developed between them. The appellant did what any reasonable man would do, by trying to separate the two. The deceased picked upon the appellant and beat him up and threw him onto a fence. Friends who were present advised the appellant to leave. The appellant’s version was that he immediately left the bar, but was shortly after followed by the deceased who had removed his shirt and who attacked him again by beating him up. In the face of the beatings he picked up a broken bottle and warned the deceased to stop beating him but the deceased still advanced and he stabbed him.
It appears quite clearly from the evidence that the deceased was a man of violent temper; he even threw away a bottle of beer offered him by a friend and nearly picked a quarrel with that friend. Mr. Okyere Darkoh submitted that in pronouncing sentence the learned judge should have taken all these facts into consideration and that in the circumstances of this case the sentence was harsh and excessive. The only reason given by the learned judge for the sentence was: “This is a crime of violence.”
We think that each crime of violence should be considered on its own merits when inflicting penalty on the perpetrator and that if the learned judge had considered all the facts in relation to the crime he would not have imposed such a long sentence.
In the case of Lamptey alias Morocco v. The Republic [1974] 1 G.L.R. 165, C.A. this court altered the verdict of murder to that of manslaughter and awarded a sentence of three years’ imprisonment with hard labour in circumstances almost similar to those before us now, that is to say, where the deceased himself was the aggressor and met his death in the fight which ensued.
Having regard to the facts of this case which appear to have been accepted by the jury we think a sentence of four years’ imprisonment with hard labour is adequate and reasonable. Accordingly we dismiss the appeal on conviction, allow the appeal on sentence and substitute a
[p.176] of [1974] 1 GLR 174
sentence of four years’ imprisonment with hard labour for the penalty imposed by the learned judge. DECISION
Appeal against conviction dismissed.
Appeal against sentence allowed.
S.E.K.
