LASSEY J.S.C.
On 12 November 1964 the appellant, Kwasi Akom, was found guilty of the offence of the murder of one Akua Akyia on 12 May 1964 at Danso village in Ashanti after a trial before Attoh J. and a jury in the High Court, Kumasi. From this conviction the appellant has appealed to this court.
After hearing the whole of the evidence and listening carefully to the judge’s summing-up the jury had no difficulty in coming to the unanimous verdict that the appellant was guilty of the murder complained of and charged. However, in this court the summing-up of the trial judge has been impeached on the ground that it contained several misdirections or non-directions the cumulative effect of which was that it caused considerable confusion in the minds of the jury, and consequently led to or resulted in a substantial miscarriage of justice.
The recorded evidence led at the trial showed clearly that it was the appellant who inflicted the bodily injury which eventually caused the death of the de…