AWUNI FRAFRA V. THE REPUBLIC

HAYFRON-BENJAMIN J.A.

On 7 December 1973, the appellant was convicted at the High Court, Accra, by the unanimous verdict of a seven-man jury of the crime of murder and was accordingly sentenced to death by the court. On 23 June 1975 this court unanimously set aside the verdict of guilty of murder and the sentence of death and substituted therefor a conviction of the crime of manslaughter and a sentence of ten years’ imprisonment with hard labour. We now proceed to give our reasons.

Aborfu village, the scene of the crime, is a village on the outskirts of Accra. It is near the settlement of Ablempe, where the first and second prosecution witnesses live. The nearest police station is on the compound of Achimota School. It would seem that these villages had been experiencing periodic and regular raids from thieves, and at least the first prosecution witness had had her things stolen from her house by thieves on one occasion.

When therefore she noticed two men standing behind a fence at nigh…