The Gold Coast Executions
The ritual murder case in the Gold Coast, which in its later developments has so deeply stirred the House of Commons twice this week, has a special interest for this journal, which early in 1945 published one of the first detailed accounts of the trial to appear in this country. The murder was committed at the time of the funeral of that well-known and enlightened Chief, Sir Ofori Atta, in 1943. Eight men were arrested and charged several months later and convicted by a jury of which all but one member were Africans. An appeal to the High Court of the Colony failed ; so equally did an appeal to the Privy Council. So equally did a series of ingenious attempts by the convicted men's counsel to get the proceedings quashed or reopened by writ of certiorari, mandamus or writ of error. So long delayed were several of these moves that the five men concerned (one of the original eight had died and two had their sentences commuted) had been actually moved into the condemned cell four or five times when some legal technicality secured them a respite. The House of Commons, being told in the first instance only that the wretched men had so often been brought in sight of death and then snatched back, insisted clamorously that in no circumstances should the death-sentence now be carried out. The full story as told by the Colonial Secretary on Wednesday puts a very different complexion on the affair. The verdict was given and the sentence passed in due legal order and the latter upheld by every court to which appeal could be made. The delays were due solely to the ingenuity of the prisoners' lawyers. The doctrine that if somehow sufficient procrastination can be achieved the processes of law can be frustrated is manifestly inadmissible. No convincing ground whatever has been adduced for interfering with the law in this case.
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