An Accra High Court presided over by Mrs. Afia Serwaa Asare-Botwe(J) has on the 24th of January, 2024 delivered a landmark judgment in which some individuals including ACP Benjamin Agordzo and eight others are standing trial for offences in the nature of Treason and conspiracy to commit Treason.
In this judgment three individuals were acquited and discharged and the others were convicted and sentenced to suffer death by hanging.
The judgment sparked controversy and got tongues wagging on both traditional and social media as to whether or not death penalty is still applicable in the criminal jurisdiction in Ghana. Quite a number of citizens believes that death penalty has been abolished from our statute books and the oft reference law for this proposition is the Criminal Offences(Amendment) Bill, 2022, a private member Bill sponsored by the Member of Parliament for Madina Constituency which was passed by Parliament last year.
Irrespective of the status of the law, the said law did not seek to amend the punishment in respect of the offence of High Treason.
The Criminal Offences (Amendment) Bill only sought to replace death penalty with life imprisonment in crimes such as Murder, Attempted Murder in prison, Genocide, Piracy and Smuggling of Gold and Diamond.
For the avoidance of doubt, the Criminal Offences (Amendment) Bill substituted the following sections of the principal enactment referred to as Criminal Offences Act, 1960, Act 29.
a. Section 1 substituted death penalty for life imprisonment under Section 46 of the principal enactment for the crime to murder.
b. Section 2 substituted death penalty for life imprisonment in section 49 of the principal enactment for the crime of attempted murder in prison.
c. Section 3 substituted death penalty for life imprisonment in section 49A of the principal enactment for the crime of Genocide.
a. Section 4 substituted death penalty for life imprisonment in section 194 of the principal enactment for the crime of Piracy.
e. Section 5 substituted death penalty for life imprisonment in section 317A of the principal enactment for the crime of Smuggling of Gold and Diamond.
However under section 180 of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960, Act 29 that prescribes death sentence for the crime of High Treason has not been amended. Also article 3(3) of the constitution of the Republic of Ghana says that; Any person who –
(a) by himself or in concert with others by any violent or other unlawful means, suspends or overthrows or abrogates this Constitution or any part of it, or attempts to do any such act; or
(b) aids and abets in any manner any person referred to in paragraph (a) of this clause; commits the offence of high treason and shall, upon conviction, be sentenced to suffer death.
Article 3(3) referred to supra is an entrenched provision of the constitution and can only be amended by a national referendum.
From the foregoing and the combine effect of section 180 of Act 29 and article 3(3) of the constitution of the Republic of Ghana, death penalty in still applicable to crimes in the nature of High Treason. The court was spot-on in sentencing the individuals charged for High Treason to suffer death.
Seidu Musah
0242051602