Muhammedu Gadam V. The Queen (1954)
LawGlobal Hub Judgment Report – West African Court of Appeal
Criminal Law—Murder—Killing person believed to be a witch.
Criminal Code, section 25—Belief not reasonable.
Facts
Section 25 of the Criminal Code provides as follows: ” A person who does or omits to do an act under an honest and reasonable, but mistaken, belief in the existence of any state of things is not criminally responsible for the act or omission to any greater extent than if the real state of things had been such as he believed to exist.
“The operation of this rule may be excluded by the express or implied provisions of the law relating to the subject.”
Appellant’s wife had a miscarriage and was mortally ill; this he bona fide attributed to her having been bewitched by two women, and he struck one of them- on the head with a hoe-handle in the belief that striking her would destroy the spell, of which blows she died.
The trial Judge said the belief was not “reasonable” within the meaning of the above section and convicted the appellant of murder. On appeal:—
Held
Though prevalent, such a belief is unreasonable, being fraught as it is with such terrible results.
Appeal dismissed.
