PRACTICE NOTE: STATE v. SIRIKYI MOSHIE [1961] GLR 655
13 November 1961 · VAN LARE JSC · ≈ 1 min read
[1961] SLR (SC) 67Other citation styles and permanent link
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DIVISION: SUPREME COURT
DATE: 13TH NOVEMBER, 1961
HEADNOTES
To direct a jury that it was no defence for an accused to kill in self-defence, a person who never intended nor attempted to kill him or inflict dangerous or grievous harm on him is a proper direction. It is not every form or nature of an insane delusion that would in law provide justification for the action taken as a result of the delusion. The nature of the delusion as to the existing facts is important. If the appellant had an insane delusion that the deceased was attacking him and in self-defence the committed the act resulting in the death he might be excused and treated as a person not fit for punishment within the provision of section 52(2), Cap. 9, now section 27(b) of the Criminal Code 1960, (Act 29). But a person under an insane delusion that he was about to be killed by someone and who therefore killed another person, not the one he imagined was about to kill him, cannot plead the protection provided by the law as to render him unfit for punishment, because he could not then be acting in self-defence. One can defend oneself only against his attacker. (The State v. Sirikyi Moshie. Joint judgment of van Lare, Sarkodee-Adoo and Adumua-Bossman, JJ.S.C., delivered by van Lare, J.S.C.).
