John Kweku Kaine V. The Queen (1953)

LawGlobal Hub Judgment Report – West African Court of Appeal

Evidence—Dying declaration—Criminal Procedure Code, section 270.

Facts

Section 270 of the Criminal Procedure Code provides that:—
“Upon a trial where the cause of death of a deceased person comes into question, the declaration of such deceased person, whether it be made in the presence of the accused person or not, may be given in evidence if the deceased person at the time of making such declaration believed himself to be in danger of approaching death, although he entertained at the time of making it hopes of recovery.”

The complaint on appeal was that a statement made by the deceased to a policeman had been wrongly admitted as a dying declaration. At first the policeman testified that when he saw the deceased, the latter was not aware that he was in grave danger of death; then on being asked by counsel for the Crown “was he aware that he was going to die?” the policeman said ‘ yes ’, and went on to say in answer to the Court that the deceased said, ” I believe myself to be in danger of approaching death and have no hope of recovery Without that statement it was highly probable that the appellant would have been convicted of no more than manslaughter as it appeared that the stabbing had occurred in the course of a struggle. He was convicted of murder.

Held

The evidence on admissibility was unsatisfactory, so the statement of the deceased ought not to have been admitted as a dying declaration.

Appeal allowed: conviction of manslaughter substituted.