COLLINS ALIAS DERBY vs. THE REPUBLIC

A farmer was found dead in a stream under a bridge separating his two farms, with severe head injuries, a cutlass, spear, truncheon, sack of corn, and a pair of brown sandals nearby. There was no eyewitness. The prosecution case rested on circumstantial evidence linking the appellant to the killing: a witness who knew him well identified the sandals found at the scene as his; she also saw blood on his chest on the morning of the killing and observed his mother washing his clothes. Another witness saw him around 4:30 a.m. emerging from the bush direction leading from the deceased’s farm and later unusually wrapped in his mother’s cloth. Police found bloodstained trousers, a bloodstained pillow, and a torn pillowcase in the appellant’s room; fabric from the pillowcase appeared to match cloth used to tie the deceased’s sack of corn. The appellant disappeared from the locality immediately after the killing and was arrested about nine months later. At trial, evidence also emerged of the appellant’s prior psychiatric history, including schizophrenia, delusions of grandeur, prior admission at Ankaful Psychiatric Hospital, interrupted treatment, and medical opinion that without medication he would relapse. Source in judgment: opening narrative of facts; evidence of Doris Fynn and other prosecution witness; police investigator’s evidence; and later psychiatric evidence discussed by the Court.