Chief Justice calls for speedy trial of cases
The Chief Justice, Mrs Justice Georgina Wood on Monday called for complete cooperation among the Attorney General’s (AG) Department, the Police and their witnesses to ensure speedy trial of criminal assizes.
She said the prosecution in order to eliminate any discord in the smooth running of the session, must show preparedness in the handling of the cases listed for the session.
Mr Justice Joseph Akamba, Justice of the Supreme Court, who represented the Chief Justice, was speaking at the opening of the Criminal Assizes of the High Court for the 2013/2014 legal year in Accra.
The criminal assizes system is where the High Court is constituted by a single Justice of the court with a selected citizens-juror to participate in the administration of justice in indictable offences such as murder, manslaughter, rape among others.
The significance of the system is that it gives recognition to lay citizen in the law an important role to play in the justice delivery.
Mrs Justice Wood also said since the cases listed for trial were heinous crimes, defence lawyers assigned such briefs were obliged to adequately study and represented their clients to the best of their abilities.
She said the values of an effective justice delivery system were measured by the confidence the people reposed in it.
She said Ghanaians had confidence in the citizen’s participation in justice delivery by making provision for the role of jurors.
Mrs Marietta Brew Appiah-Oppong, Minister of Justice and Attorney General charged the new jurors to exhibit a high sense of integrity and be punctual in court.
She said they should listen to the judge with rapt attention at all times especially in his summing up and be courteous to all users of the court.
She said the enormity of the indictable offences and matters that the jurors would be sitting on from murder to rape would require from them the highest virtues of good citizenship and qualities like sobriety, temperance, reflection, careful scrutiny and good judgment.
“The trial of a man by his peers is a near-sacred duty, for even without a trained judicial mind or legal training, your decisions will determine whether an accused person is hanged or walks free,” she added.
Mrs Marietta Appiah-Oppong also called for cooperation between the Police and her Ministry to ensure that witnesses were produced on time to avoid undue delay of the cases.
She said the AG’s Department was committed to play it part by ensuring speedy trials and effective justice delivery.
Mr Justice Charles Quist, the trial judge, also urged the jurors to be circumspect by not disclosing any information to the public.
He said they must take into account the oath of secrecy they took as well as good judgment before arriving at a decision.
Meanwhile, the case involving Kofi Seidu and Padmore Goodwill, in the murder of Revered Sydney Thomas Barnes, the British Philanthropist, who was murdered at Adawso in the Eastern Region, was mentioned for hearing in court.
The two accused persons have been charged with conspiracy to commit murder and murder.
However, Kofi Seidu pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder with explanation but not guilty to murder, while Padmore Goodwill pleaded not guilty to the two charges.
Mr Richard Akutame, Counsel for the accused persons, said his clients were not guilty of the offence and so it was up to the prosecution to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.
He prayed the court to adjourn the case. The court subsequently adjourned it to April 25, 2013.
Source: GNA