DOGO DAGARTI V. THE STATE
(1964) JELR 65784 (SC)
Supreme Court
•
4 Dec 1964
•
Ghana
Coram
OLLENNU JSC,ACOLATSE JSC,SIRIBOE J.S.C.
Appearances
W. ADUMUA-BOSSMAN FOR THE APPELLANT; J.N. K. TAYLOR SENIOR STATE ATTORNEY FOR THE RESPONDENT.
Judgement
<p>OLLENNU J.S.C.: The appellant was found guilty by a jury of the murder of his wife one Amma Dagarti; he was accordingly convicted, and the only sentence allowed by law was passed upon him. He appealed against his conviction on two main grounds, namely: (1) the defence case of an absence of intention to kill (by reason of epilepsy) was not adequately put to the jury; and (2) there was a misdirection to the jury as to the unlawful nature of the harm done to the deceased.</p><p>The incidents which led to the proceedings occurred in the morning of 31 July 1963, between 8.00 and 8.30 o’clock, at a village called Bonsa, near Tarkwa. The appellant and his said wife had lodged with some countrymen of his in the said village. The appellant was in a room given to them by their host, and the wife was in the kitchen doing some cooking in the company of two other women. At a certain stage of the cooking the deceased left the other women to the room to fetch something she needed to put into her soup. Very…</p>