REPUBLIC V. KORLE GONNO DISTRICT MAGISTRATE GRADE I; EX PARTE AMPOMAH

OFORI-BOATENG J.A.: This is an appeal against the ruling of the High Court, Accra presided over by Aryeetey J. The facts briefly are as follows: On 29 January 1990, Emmanuel Atta Ampomah died at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital. On the same day, an autopsy was conducted on the deceased by a pathologist, Dr. William Minnow Simmons, in the presence of one Dr. Boateng, a nephew of the deceased.

It would appear that as Dr. Boateng did not suspect any foul play regarding his uncle’s death, he somehow rushed Dr. Simmons to do only a “partial post-mortem” just to verify the clinical diagnosis of cerebrovascular accident. And so if death had been caused by poisoning, for example, he could not have known through that partial post-mortem.

Later, the relatives of the deceased expressed dissatisfaction with this autopsy and demanded another one from a different source. The second autopsy was carried out in the department of pathology under the general supervision of Dr. Felix Dodu. There also it was …