The Court of Appeal has acquitted and discharged a 48-year-old drinking bar owner, Yaw Appiah, who had wrongfully served 19 years in jail for an offence he had not committed.
Appiah was convicted in 2011 when he was 29 years old and sentenced to 45 years for robbery after spending five years on remand.
However, after spending nearly 20 years in Nsawam prisons since 2006, the Court of Appeal has served him with justice and described his conviction and subsequent sentencing as a “tragedy.”
Yaw Appiah (3rd Accused), together with Stephen Quarshie, (1st Accused), Kwabena Nimako, (2nd Accused), Kwasi Frimpong, (4th Accused), Kojo Ameyaw (5th Accused), and Daniel Ayareba (6th Accused) were charged variously for conspiracy for robbery and robbery.
While Kwabena Nimako, Kwasi Frimpong, Kojo Ameyaw, and Daniel Ayareba pleaded guilty with explanation, Stephen Quarshie and Yaw Appiah denied the offence.
However, in 2011, the High Court, presided over by Justice Charles Quist (now of blessed memory), convicted Yaw Appiah and sentenced him to 45 years in prison after the court said he pleaded guilty (when he did not), following five years on remand.
Yaw Appiah’s journey to prove his innocence began when he met with lawyer Claudia Coleman, who became a steadfast pillar of support in his pursuit of justice.
On January 30, 2025, a panel of three of the Court of Appeal presided over by Gbiel S. Suurbaareh with Justice Eric K. Baffour, Esq and Justice Samuel Obeng-Diawuo reversed his conviction and sentenced.
No evidence
The panel in their judgment said, “The evidence on record had not met the threshold of reasonable doubt to have merited conviction of the appellant.
“We find that there was no direct evidence that connected the appellant with the crime and there was also no circumstantial evidence that linked the appellant to the crime for which he was convicted.
“There are much more troubling findings on record which we cannot in this judgment gloss over. The trial Judge in her judgment made some findings and drew conclusions which finds no support at all from the evidence on record,” the Court of Appeal said.
The Court of Appeal noted with concerns that, page 117 of the record in the judgment of the trial Judge, stated that the appellant pleaded guilty to the charge when indeed, “the appellant did not plead guilty to the charges.”
“At page 120 of the record the trial Judge strangely claimed that in the evidence of Pw2, Theresa Kuffour, she saw appellant among the persons that joined the fray when her husband was on the ground.
“Again, that page 121 of the record the trial Judge found that both Pw1 and Pw2 recognized and identified the appellant. That again is totally incorrect.
“The trial Judge completely misapprehended the evidence that was led by prosecution.
“And if attention had been paid to the evidence led appellant would not have been called to open his defence as prosecution failed to establish a prima face case against him,” the Court of Appeal noted.
Commendation
The panel subsequently expressed commendation to “the learned Senior State Attorney for her honest admission at page 25 of the written submission of the Republic that: ‘We humbly submit that the prosecution did not discharge its burden to the fullest nor adduce cogent evidence before the trial court which led to the conviction of the appellant. It is our view that the conviction of the appellant was wrong in law having regard to the evidence adduced.’”
Tragedy
It is the conclusion of the panel that, “It is a tragedy that this appellant had been in custody since 2006 for a crime which
there was no evidence to link him and only appealed after seventeen years in custody.
“It is better late than never and we proceed to do the needful by setting aside the conviction as being erroneous.
“The judgment of the court below is reversed. The conviction and sentence are set aside.The appeal succeeds,” the Court said.
Legal representation
Claudia Coleman served as counsel for the appellant, while Ms. Dufie Prempah, Principal State Attorney, along with Derrick Ackah-Nyameke, State Attorney, and Ms. Selassie Kabianu, Assistant State Attorney, represented the Republic.
With tears flowing through his eyes, Appiah shares a harrowing and the painful experience of the immense hardship he had to endure in prisons custody.
Background
The complainant, one Richard Kwakye together with his wife Theresa Kwakye and
their children had seen off a relative at the Airport and were returning home on the
2nd of January, 2006 about 9:30pm when they sighted some young men loitering about close to their gate.
That the complainant was savagely attacked with machete and other implements.
By means of violence the men succeeded in taking away five mobile phones, currencies in cedi and dollar denominations.
To prosecution, they called the numbers of some of the phones that the robbers took away and the responses received helped investigators to locate the appellant and other convicts at Okaishie Accra and other places.
Besides, that other convicts also mentioned the appellant as one of the persons that attacked the complainant.
Appellant was convicted based on the testimonies of three prosecution witnesses as well as the claim by prosecution that some of the convicts upon their arrest mentioned appellant as one of the persons that took part in the robbery.
The trial court found that there was enough or strong circumstantial evidence to link appellant to the robbery. Upon his conviction he was sentenced to a term of forty- five (45) years on each count to run concurrently.
Having been in prison since the 16th of June, 2011 and with leave granted by this court for extension of time to file an appeal out of time; this appeal was launched.
The grounds of appeal which were filed and the subsequent additional grounds of appeal upon receipt of record of proceedings are as follows:
a. The trial Judge erred when he failed to consider the defence of the appellant at the trial.
b. The trial Judge erred in failing to take into account the period of time spent in lawful custody by the appellant before his conviction and sentence.
c. The sentence is excessive in the light of the evidence on record
d. The judgment is unreasonable and cannot be supported having regard to the evidence on record.
e. The learned trial Judge convicted the appellant on clear belief and suspicion.
Brief facts
The complainant and the wife, Mr. & Mrs. Kwakye live at Teshie-Nungua Estate in Accra.
On the 2nd of January, 2006 around 9.30pm they were returning home after dropping their son at the Airport and they were in a vehicle which was being driven by Mr. Kwakye.
His wife was seated next to him in the front passenger seat and their children were behind in the back passenger seat.
When they got to their front their house, they noticed the accused persons A1, A2, A3, A4, and A5 standing very close to their house, and then they drove to the gate of the house.
When they got to the gate, my lord, just as they blew the horn and the house-help to was coming to open the gate.
They were attacked by the five (5) accused persons, who were holding machetes and cutlasses.
