HELEGAH V. THE REPUBLIC

ARCHER J.A.

The appellant was tried on an indictment at the High Court, Ho, for the murder of his wife Korsiwor Kwami at Wumeve cottage in the Volta Region and was found guilty of murder. He has appealed against the verdict on the grounds that:

(a) The conviction is wrong because at the time the offence was alleged to have been committed there was doubt that he was sane.

(b) The learned trial judge did not direct the jury properly on the law of insanity.

The appellant’s contention, therefore, was that the special verdict of “guilty but insane” should have been brought by the jury.

The prosecution’s story was that the appellant was married to the deceased and they had a young child and they lived together at their cottage. The mother of the deceased wife received a message in August 1968 while she was in Ashanti that her daughter was sick. She therefore returned to the Volta Region and went to Live village to visit the daughter who had been sick for about a month. After the daughter’s recov…