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Justice Dotse explains why cases collapse in court
Speaking at an event organised by the One Ghana Movement, a social action group, the outspoken judge said cases in Ghana are ruled on based on the evidence submitted the prosecutor and that if the evidence fails to meet the standard judges will rule against it.
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Speaking at an event organised by the One Ghana Movement, a social action group, the outspoken judge said cases in Ghana are ruled on based on the evidence submitted by the prosecutor and that if the evidence fails to meet the standard, judges will rule against it.
According to him, judges in civil law countries have certain powers to determine the direction of an investigation during a trial but said in the case of Ghana and other non-civil law countries, cases are determined based on the evidence before the judge.
“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 criticise the judiciary these are our limitations,” he said.
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Using a murder case, he explained:
“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.
Justice Dotse called for the strengthening of state institutions such as the Police, Immigration, Narcotics and EOCO. He also said they should be given the needed independence to allow them to do their work properly.
He said: "I will say that what we need to do in this country is to ensure that all the agencies involved in security – Police, He 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 judgement and it does not measure up then the judges are blamed.”
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He continued: “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?” -
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