Action on verdict
Section 285 (4) of Act 30
Where the jury are not unanimous in their opinion, the Justice shall, after the lapse of a time that the Justice considers reasonable, discharge the jury, but a verdict of a majority of not less than five to two shall, in respect of an offence which is not punishable by death, be held, taken to be, and received by the Court as the verdict of the whole jury.Section 286. Retrial of accused after discharge of jury
Where the jury is discharged, the accused shall be detained in custody or released on bail, and shall be tried by another jury.
An Accra High Court has ordered the retrial of Daniel Asiedu aka Sexy Don Don, a trader, accused of stabbing Abuakwa North Member of Parliament, J.B Danquah Adu, to death.
This was after a seven-member jury had returned a 4-3 verdict on Asiedu on the charges of robbery and murder. Four members of the jury found Asiedu not guilty on the charge of robbery while the other three found him guilty. On the charge of murder, four jurors found Asiedu not guilty, and the three others found him guilty.
The late Member of Parliament was gruesomely murdered at his residence at Shiashie, near East Legon, Accra in February 2016. The trial Judge, Justice Lydia Osei Marfo, ruled that Per section 285 of Act 30, the Jury did not have a legally acceptable verdict, hence discharged the jury.
The court therefore ordered the retrial of the accused and remanded him into lawful custody. On a bail application put in by defence counsel, the court ordered him to come before the court formally.
It adjourned the matter to December 20, 2024 for mention. Lawyer for Asiedu, following the verdict of the jury, prayed the court to admit Asiedu to bail to enable him get access to his counsel and prepare adequately for his defence.
At the summing up, both defence counsel, Mr Yaw Dankwah and Sefakor Batsa, Principal State Attorney, took turns to address the court. Defence counsel and prosecution took three hours each to address the court.
The court presided over by Justice Mrs Lydia Osei Marfo also took time to explain the matter to the jury before arriving at their decision.
In all, the state called eight witnesses to establish a case against the accused. However, the accused, now 27 years old, called no witness. He is said to have committed the offence at the age of 19.
The family of the deceased sat through the summing up but stepped out following the jury’s verdict. Earlier on, defence counsel Yaw Dankwah, in an address, appealed to the jury to return a verdict of not guilty because evidence of the prosecution was unreliable and full of inconsistencies.
“The evidence of the prosecution cannot stand the test of time. The story is a planned thing, and they just want to pin the accused person. The Chief lead investigator came here as a messenger. He only came to make a mockery of the Police Service because he only worked for his bosses.”
According to defence counsel, the autopsy could not be relied on because the pathologist took two years to prepare the autopsy report and might have forgotten some important things to be included in the report.
He said the pathologist told the court his laptop on which he had the report went missing and he depended on the notes of his clerk who had no knowledge in the medical field.
Defence counsel questioned Prosecution’s inability to call the deceased wife and mother-in-law to testify because they were in the house when the incident occurred. He said his client could not have committed the offence because of the stature of the deceased.
Prosecution recounted how the accused during the reconstruction scene demonstrated to the Police how he entered the deceased room and committed the act.
Prosecution recalled how Asiedu robbed the deceased of three mobiles and handed the same over to a phone repairer to charge and unlock them. “If the accused was nowhere near the scene, how could he have had in possession the deceased mobile phones,” prosecution quizzed.
According to prosecution DNA conducted on the accused’s belongings such as cap, Tee shirt, among others had 100 per cent DNA of the accused. The prosecution case was that Daniel Asiedu aka sexy Don Don and Vincent Bossu aka Junior Agogo are both traders. Asiedu resides at Agbogbloshie while Bossu resides at Madina, all in Accra.
Prosecution held that accused persons planned to go on a robbery spree on February 8, 2016. Asiedu armed himself with a knife, cutter, catapult and weapons and boarded a commercial vehicle from Agbogboloshie to Circle and boarded another vehicle to Madina.
When they alighted at Shiashie, a misunderstanding ensued between the two as to which house to rob. Bossu then left Asiedu who continued to scout in the area and went to the MP’s House at about 1:00am on February 9, 2016.
Prosecution held that Aseidu scaled over a wall and entered the late MP’s house because the security man on duty was fast asleep. Asiedu then took a ladder in the house and climbed into the room of the deceased, who was asleep.
Prosecution held that Asiedu took three mobile phones of the late MP.
The security man in the deceased house woke up and found a ladder. The Police were contacted and they arrived at the scene. The Court heard that Asiedu handed over the deceased mobile phones to a witness to charge and unlock same for him.
The witness, after unlocking one of the deceased phones, saw pictures of the MP. Investigations led to the arrest of Asiedu who confirmed that he and Bossu had gone to Shiashie to rob. Postmortem conducted by Dr Lawrence Edusei indicated the cause of death as xythamentia, meaning multiple stabbing.
Asiedu and Bossu were initially charged with conspiracy to rob and robbery. Asiedu was additionally charged with murder. The accused pleaded not guilty before a seven-member jury.
The charge of conspiracy was muted when the court acquitted and discharged Bossu, the second accused, after a submission of no case.
GNA
