The Appellant was arraigned for
murder. Following a full trial, the Appellant was found guilty of manslaughter
for which he was sentenced to life imprisonment. Aggrieved, he preferred the
present appeal. During the trial, the two assessors who assisted the learned
trial judge were unanimous. They both opined that the Appellant be acquitted.
In his judgment the learned judge rejected Appellant’s defence of an alibi
and in grounding a conviction against the Appellant the trial court heavily
relied on the deceased’s dying declaration corroborated by the evidence of PW2
and PW3. However, nothing on record shows that in the course of summing-up to
assessors the latter were directed on the basic evidence of the said deceased’s
dying declaration and its legal import.