Hon. Sosu initiates PMB for compensation of unlawfully convicted persons

The Member of Parliament for the Madina Constituency, Hon. Francis-Xavier Sosu has initiated a Private Members Bill aimed at providing a legal framework to guide compensations available to persons who are wrongfully convicted by the state. 

The Bill, which would be known as the Compensations Act will determine the formulae for computing compensational benefits that can be given to persons who are unlawfully arrested, detained, and convicted.

A petition sighted by Dennislaw News shows that the legislator has submitted his proposal to the Legislative Drafting Office for the drafting of “subsequent submission to the Speaker.” The bill is aimed at giving effect to clauses (5) and (7) of Article 14 of the 1992 Constitution. 

Article 14(5) of the Constitution states that “a person who is unlawfully arrested, restricted or detained by any other person shall be entitled to compensation from that other person.”

Article 14(7) on the other hand provides that “where a person who has served the whole or a part of his sentence is acquitted on appeal by a court, other than the Supreme Court, the court may certify to the Supreme Court that the person acquitted be paid compensation; and the Supreme Court may, upon examination of all the facts and the certificate of the court concerned, award such compensation as it may think fit; or, where the acquittal is by the Supreme Court, it may order compensation to be paid to the person acquitted”

According to Hon. Sosu, irrespective of the fact that these constitutional provisions allow for some form of compensation to persons who are wrongfully convicted, the Supreme Court is continually required to determine on its own accord, what may be deemed appropriate for a given case. The absence of a general formula to guide such applications creates difficulty in determining what may be deemed appropriate for a given case.

He further noted in the proposal that “in the absence of any clear legal basis for computation of compensation, the courts/judges are left to exercise their discretion. In the exercise of their discretion, the compensation awarded by the courts/judge to persons who have been wrongfully convicted, detained, and arrested have not been satisfactory as compared to the kind of wrong suffered by the person due to the wrongful acts committed by actors of state agencies.”

Citing the case of Eric Asante, the teacher who was wrongfully convicted for defiling and impregnating a 14-year-old student, the Madina legislator noted that the Supreme Court discharged him after he served 15 years in jail when a DNA test provided fresh evidence that he was not the father of the child who was born out of said defilement. 

The MP has also included in the petition, a provision that would ensure that “offending state agents who may be complicit in the violation will be surcharged with whatever compensation paid by the state to the person whose rights have been violated.”

He also wants the law to provide the sources of the compensation, which he expects would be the consolidated fund. According to the legislator, the formula should calculate on an hourly, daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis, how much is to be paid and what grounds or circumstances would legitimize a claim by any applicant.

See photos of the petition below;