BELLAMY, AG. C.J., Lagos (Delivering the Judgment of the Court):
The appellant was charged with the murder of his wife, a woman named RHODA JOSIAH, at Ilue-Ologbo village on the 3rd June, 1960. He was found guilty and sentenced to death.
The facts, which are not in dispute, are these. The appellant and his wife, Rhoda Josiah, lived together at Ilue-Ologbo. On the 3rd June, 1960, about 4 o’clock in the afternoon, the appellant’s half sister, who lived about 10 yards away from the appellant’s house, heard Rhoda Josiah shouting in alarm, and she rushed to her house. Before she could reach it, she saw the appellant running out with a cutlass in his hand. She entered his house and found Rhoda Josiah lying on the floor in a pool of blood. There was an incised wound on her neck. The appellant was later apprehended in the village, and the cutlass was taken from him. The appellant was handed over to the police. A post mortem examination of the body of the deceased showed that she had sustained…