KONTOR
V.
THE REPUBLIC

ABBAN J.A.: The appellant was convicted of murder and sentenced to death by the High Court, Sekondi on 8 July 1985.

The brief facts of the case were that the deceased and the appellant were cousins living in the same house. There had been a quarrel between them. The basis of the quarrel was that the appellant had ejected certain tenants from a house which ejectment the deceased considered not justified.

However, the immediate cause of the fight was that the appellant had been, so to speak, talking about the deceased in his (deceased’s) absence. This, the deceased never approved of and a quarrel ensued between them. The quarrel then turned into a fight.

It was clear from the evidence that during the fight, the appellant stabbed the deceased and it was from the injury received from this one stab that, according to the medical evidence, the deceased died.

The evidence of the vital witnesses for the prosecution—especially the second prosecution witness—established without doubt that the appel…