All is set for the commencement of the trial of the two teenagers who allegedly killed an 11-year-old boy at Kasoa last year for money ritual, as the prosecution is set to call its first witness on March 7, 2023.
In all, the prosecution would be calling seven witnesses to prove its case in the trial of the two (name withheld) who have been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit murder and a substantive charge of murder.
They have all pleaded not guilty to the charge of murder while one of them who is believed to be the prime suspect and had confessed to the crime during the committal proceedings, pleaded guilty to the charge of conspiracy to commit murder, but the court entered a plea of not guilty for him.
The court, presided over by Justice Lydia Osei Marfo, and the defense counsels Samuel Atuah and Martin Kpebu as well as the prosecution led by Nana Adoma Osei, a Senior State Attorney, yesterday concluded pre-trial plan which paved way for the commencement of the trial.
The prosecution and defence lawyers in the case at the previous sitting had addressed the seven-member panel and Nana Adoma Osei, in her address, read the brief facts of the case which indicated that the teenagers were influenced by a spiritualist who asked them to bring a human being for ritual purposes in order to make them rich.
She said the prosecution in order to prove its case against the two who have been charged with conspiracy and murder would have to prove that someone is dead, and that the person died from unlawful harm.
She said the prosecution will prove that someone was indeed dead through unlawful harm, which was caused by the accused persons by using the club of a pickaxe and a cement block to hit the deceased.
Again, Ms. Osei said the prosecution will prove that the harm caused to the deceased by the accused persons was unlawful and unjustified, and that the harm caused the death of the 11-year-old.
“Indeed, all the evidence gathered prove that it was the accused persons, and not any other person who killed the deceased,” the prosecution further indicated.
Samuel Atuah, counsel for the first accused, said the mere fact that a person has died does not mean that there has been a murder.
He said the question members of the jury will be asking themselves during the course of the trial is whether the first accused intentionally killed the deceased and whether he had a justifiable cause.
Kormivi Dzotsi, who held brief for Martin Kpebu, for the second accused, said Ghana’s laws recognises that the age of a person plays a very critical role in first and foremost appreciating the consequences and effects of his or her actions.
“What I want you to bear in mind as the trial progresses is whether or not A2 indeed did the things that he is alleged to have done, and, if he did, whether he understood and appreciated his actions and the consequences thereof as he carried them out, if at all,” he stated.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak