The Court of Appeal, Criminal Division, Accra, has acquitted and discharged a man serving a 30-year sentence.
The convict had already served 15 years for conspiracy to commit robbery and robbery.
His defence lawyers argued that the prosecution could not establish a connection between the convict and the crime for which he was charged.
The Principal State Attorney, Stella Ohene Appiah, agreed with the defence team that the portions of the available appeal record were insufficient to establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
“It is quite clear respectively that apart from the loss of records through no fault of the appellant, the available portions of the appeal record which are relevant to the appellant’s case are not sufficient to arrive at the conclusion that prosecution was able to prove its case against him beyond a reasonable doubt,” the State Attorney said in a written submission.
Based on this argument, the Attorney said that justice must be served fairly and thus recommended that the appellant’s appeal against his conviction and sentence be granted.
This decision was welcomed by the appellant, who has already served half of the sentence in prison for a crime he allegedly did not commit.
Below is a portion of the State Attorney’s submission
