Felix Nyarko and Nicholas Kwame Kini
Some of the people sampled for jury duties in the trial of two teenagers who killed an 11-year-old boy in Kasoa last year for rituals are being taken through a series of training.
The trial court had ordered the registrar to make available a list of competent persons for the empanelling of the jury to facilitate the efficient hearing of the case.
But when the case was called, the court, presided over by Justice Lydia Osei Marfo, stated that the registrars had indicated to her that the few people invited for empanelling were being trained at the Judicial Training Institute.
She said the registrar has asked for a few more days to put things together.
The court, therefore, adjourned the case to May 11, 2022, for the seven-member jury to be empanelled.
The court at the last sitting emphatically insisted on the need to empanel a competent jury for the trial, disqualifying any person above the age of 55 and those with health challenges from being added to the pool.
According to the court, the pool is to be made up of neutral people, and devoid of professional jurors – jurors who have appeared in several jury trials.
Again, any juror who is currently engaged in more than two cases is to be excluded from the pool, which should desirably contain a fresh set of people for the case to be tried expeditiously to have the desired outcome.
Felix Nyarko and Nicholas Kini were committed by a Kaneshie Magistrate Court last year August, after it found that there was enough evidence for them to stand trial for the alleged murder of Ishmael Mensah Abdallah.
The gruesome murder of 11-year-old Ishmael Mensah Abdallah stunned the nation, when graphic pictures of the deceased in the midst of an angry crowd being prevented by the police from lynching the teenagers went viral on social media and on mainstream television.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak