Oliver Mawuse Barker-Vormawor, convener with the Fix The Country movement has disclosed a case in which a 13-year-old was at risk of being jailed for murder.
Oliver recounted last Thursday (February 2) that the case before the Ada District Court was dropped after the state filed a nolle prosequi against his client.
In giving a brief of the case via a Facebook post, he said police had opted to charge the unnamed client after she stabbed an aggressor who had attempted to rape her on multiple occasions.
He had been contacted by an acquaintance who was following the case and he opted to take it on a pro bono basis: "A child had been attacked by a guy who had tried on a couple of occasions to defile the kid.
"He had been caught on a couple of occasions undressing the girl deep in the middle of the night in her own home.
"In the struggle, she ended up stabbing him with scissors. It was not intentional, but she was fighting for herself as one does. The guy ended up losing his life and the police charged the kid with murder," he stated.
He said as a lawyer, the nolle prosequi came as a relief to himself and the accused's family, stressing his belief that there were many more such cases where people are being held over lack of representation.
"I just left the Ada District Court on a pro bono brief. The murder charges against my 13-year-old client have been discontinued by the State after a nolle prosequi.
"Huge relief. And I am just grateful to see such burden lifted off a family, and this child," his post read in part.
Find the full post below:
I just left the Ada District Court on a pro bono brief. The murder charges against my 13-year-old client have been discontinued by the State after a nolle prosequi.
Huge relief. And I am just grateful to see such burden lifted off a family, and this child.
A couple of months ago Golda Naa Adaku Addo reached out about a peculiar case. I was in Tamale at the time. A child had been attacked by a guy who had tried on a couple of occasions to defile the kid. He had been caught on a couple of occasions undressing the girl deep in the middle of the night in her own home.
In the struggle, she ended up stabbing him with a scissors. It was not intentional, but she was fighting for herself as one does. The guy ended up losing his life and the police charged the kid with murder.