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20th July, 2012
2 Farmers Sentenced To Death For Murder
The Koforidua High Court yesterday sentenced two farmers to death by hanging for murdering their relative.
The two, Ayitey Tetteh, 55 and Ayitey Angmor, 61, who are brothers, pleaded not guilty to the charge of conspiracy and murdering their uncle, Fiagbor Lawern whose bullet-ridden body was found lying on a farm at Sappor, a farming community near Akosombo on October 5, 2007.
They were, however, found guilty on the charges preferred against them by a seven-member jury.
Three others, who were also arrested in connection with the case-Awosayo Angbor, Felix Teye and Stephen Odonkor, were acquitted and discharged for lack of evidence.
Before passing sentence, the presiding judge, Mr. Justice Kossi Efo Kaglo, summed up the proceedings of the trial, which started in 2010, during which a number of witnesses were called.
He then took the jurors, comprising three women and four men through the rudiments of trial by jury.
He advised them that as laymen, they were to be judges of facts, not of the law, and that they should not base their findings on suggestions and speculations but facts before the court.
Justice Kaglo further urged the jurors to prove beyond all reasonable doubt that the culprits were those who had killed Larweh and that the slightest doubt in that respect must go in favour of the convicts, since the penalty was death.
He then requested the jurors to retire to a room within the court building to determine the fate of the convicts and, after less than 15 minutes returned with a unanimous decision of guilty for the convicts.
Tetteh and Angmor, who sat motionless during the proceedings, were heard talking quietly in their local dialect that they had no hand in the death of their relative but were taken away by prison officers.
Earlier, a State Attorney, Ms Akpene Motey told the court that Larwern, who was living outside the Krobo area, visited one of his relatives, Francis Fiagbor, at Nuaso, near Odumase-Krobo, and left at about 6:30am on October 5, 2007 to visit the convicts at Sappor near Akosombo but never returned.
She said after two days, the family members of Larweh contacted the convicts who confirmed that he visited them on the said day but left.
Ms Motey said the two convicts were arrested and evidence in respect of the murder incriminated them.
The two, Ayitey Tetteh, 55 and Ayitey Angmor, 61, who are brothers, pleaded not guilty to the charge of conspiracy and murdering their uncle, Fiagbor Lawern whose bullet-ridden body was found lying on a farm at Sappor, a farming community near Akosombo on October 5, 2007.
They were, however, found guilty on the charges preferred against them by a seven-member jury.
Three others, who were also arrested in connection with the case-Awosayo Angbor, Felix Teye and Stephen Odonkor, were acquitted and discharged for lack of evidence.
Before passing sentence, the presiding judge, Mr. Justice Kossi Efo Kaglo, summed up the proceedings of the trial, which started in 2010, during which a number of witnesses were called.
He then took the jurors, comprising three women and four men through the rudiments of trial by jury.
He advised them that as laymen, they were to be judges of facts, not of the law, and that they should not base their findings on suggestions and speculations but facts before the court.
Justice Kaglo further urged the jurors to prove beyond all reasonable doubt that the culprits were those who had killed Larweh and that the slightest doubt in that respect must go in favour of the convicts, since the penalty was death.
He then requested the jurors to retire to a room within the court building to determine the fate of the convicts and, after less than 15 minutes returned with a unanimous decision of guilty for the convicts.
Tetteh and Angmor, who sat motionless during the proceedings, were heard talking quietly in their local dialect that they had no hand in the death of their relative but were taken away by prison officers.
Earlier, a State Attorney, Ms Akpene Motey told the court that Larwern, who was living outside the Krobo area, visited one of his relatives, Francis Fiagbor, at Nuaso, near Odumase-Krobo, and left at about 6:30am on October 5, 2007 to visit the convicts at Sappor near Akosombo but never returned.
She said after two days, the family members of Larweh contacted the convicts who confirmed that he visited them on the said day but left.
Ms Motey said the two convicts were arrested and evidence in respect of the murder incriminated them.
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