A 31 year old mechanic, has been acquitted and discharged by the High Court in Accra after having his 22-year custodial sentence for robbery overturned due to an improper identification parade by the police.
Godwin Afedzo who was 26 years old in 2020 was convicted and sentenced to 22 years by the Circuit Court in Amasaman for robbing a taxi driver of his car, after he was identified by the driver when an identification parade was conducted.
However, after a challenge was mounted against the conviction and sentence, it has been established that Afedzo was a victim of wrongful identity, which led to his conviction and subsequent imprisonment.
Justice Marie-Louise Simmons, the judge at the High Court in Accra who held the appeal, said the parade was improperly conducted, in breach of established procedural safeguards, thereby creating reasonable doubt as to the reliability of the identification.
She said the trial judge failed to appreciate the effect of the investigator’s admission that the complainant saw the appellant before the parade. Instead, the judge focused heavily on Exhibit A1 —the further statement taken after the parade — in which the complainant suddenly provided detailed identification features, yet the complainant offered no identifiable features at all in his first statement.
The Court held that, with no corroborative evidence beyond the tainted identification, the conviction cannot stand.
The conviction of the appellant for robbery and conspiracy to rob, and the sentence of 22 years’ imprisonment, are thereby set aside.
The appellant, Godwin Afedzo,was acquitted and discharged.
By Murtala Inusah
