A Supreme Court judge Justice, Jones Dotse, has urged Ghanaians to desist from blaming judges if cases do not go the way they wanted.
According to him, judges adjudicate cases based on the evidence provided them by security agencies, and thus cannot go beyond such evidence to make judgements.
“In Ghana just like any other common law countries, the judges decide cases on the basis of the evidence that is adduced in the court. It is not like the judges in the civil law countries who have certain powers who can even determine the course of the investigation. So sometimes when civil society organisations criticize the judiciary these are our limitations,” he added.
The Supreme Court Justice explained that, in murder cases, there are certain ingredients that have to be established before judgments are passed.
“Somebody is dead, he died as a result of unlawful harm, that harm was intentionally caused by the accused. In putting forth this simple case, if you call witnesses without calling the pathologist who performed the medical examination, then it is contentious as to how the deceased died, how do you expect the judge or sometimes to the jury who will make up their mind on the cause of the death? So these are the issues you all must follow and understand,” he said.
Judges have in recent times been bashed for some judgements they passed in some high profile cases in the country.
Justice Dotse while speaking at an event organized by a social action group, One Ghana Movement on Friday, also urged security agencies to beef up their efforts in enhancing effective justice delivery.
He also called for the strengthening of the security agencies to enable them provide adequate evidence before the courts for effective administration of justice.
“I will say that what we need to do in this country is to ensure that all the agencies involved in security – Police, Immigration, Narcotics, EOCO, need to be strengthened. We need to allow them to do their work. Because their work does not end with them, it ends up in court. If they don’t do their work well, then when the cases come to court, people blame the courts for cases that do not go in their favour. If the judges make the judgment and it does not measure up then the judges are blamed.”
“Cases have to be properly investigated and well prosecuted. A case can be properly investigated but improperly prosecuted before the court. If A has to give evidence and A is not called, B’s evidence is immaterial because they’ve left out a material evidence. What do you expect the judge to do?”
–
By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin