How three words, a missing knife and a medical report helped convict doctor’s husband of 1985 murder

A man who was convicted of murdering his wife, a young doctor at Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, lost his appeal after the Court of Appeal upheld his conviction, relying on evidence that included a statement he made to his uncle after her death.

The case, Duah v The Republic, involved the death of Agnes Yeboah, who was found dead in her room on April 12, 1985, with a knife wound to her chest. Her husband, Duah, claimed she had stabbed herself.

Lawyer Joseph Kofi Frimpong Ackah-Blay, who shared the case on Facebook on October 27, 2026, recounted how the court rejected Duah’s account and upheld his death sentence.

According to him, Duah and Agnes had married secretly despite her father’s opposition. By 1985, Agnes was working as a doctor at Korle-Bu and had a six-month-old daughter, while Duah was living in London.

“It starts as a love story. Agnes Yeboah and a young man named Duah knew each other in Accra, then found each other again as students in India, where his father happened to be Ghana's High Commissioner.

“The families were friends. The two fell in love and wanted to marry, but her father would not have it. So they married quietly, first in India and then at the Registrar-General's office in Accra, without telling her parents,” he shared.

He continued, saying that Duah, after arriving in Accra on April 9, 1985, spent three days with Agnes. However, at about 2:30 a.m. on April 12, he went to his uncle’s home and handed him a bag, a note and £1,000 for the baby.

According to the uncle, Dr Francis Duah, his nephew then said in Twi, “Meku Aggie,” meaning “I have killed Aggie.”

Duah is said to have later told the police that he and Agnes had agreed to a suicide pact. In court, however, he reportedly claimed she had stabbed herself and urged him to do the same.

“Duah's own story kept moving. To the police, he spoke of a suicide pact. By the time he got to court, it was all her idea, and he had never agreed. They had been lying in bed, talking and making love, he said, when he heard a cry. She was holding out the knife, telling him it was finished, it was his turn, he should not be a coward. He cut his finger, taking it from her,” he recounted.

He further said he tried to help her by pressing a towel against the wound before leaving the room and locking the door.

“He pressed a towel to her wound. And then? He got dressed, walked out, and locked the door behind him. The building was full of doctors.

He did not knock on a single door. He said he left the knife in the room. But nobody went into that room until the police forced it open, and the knife was not there,” he added.

The account said that the knife was never found, and no one witnessed the incident. However, Dr Seth Koranteng, who assisted with the post-mortem examination, testified that the wound required considerable force and that he did not believe it was self-inflicted.

The High Court in Accra convicted Duah of murder on September 12, 1985, and sentenced him to death. He subsequently appealed, challenging the use of his uncle’s testimony and the medical evidence.

The Court of Appeal accepted that the words Duah allegedly spoke to his uncle could not be treated as part of the killing itself because they were made hours later and miles away.

However, it ruled that they were admissible as a confession because there was no evidence that Duah had been threatened or induced to make the statement.

The court also considered the medical evidence, including the direction of the wound, which ran upwards. Citing a forensic medicine textbook relied on by the defence, the court noted that wounds running from below upwards generally point to homicide.

It further rejected Duah’s claim that Agnes had taken her own life, describing the suicide account as “a sham”.

On July 16, 1987, the Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal as wholly unmeritorious, upholding Duah’s conviction and death sentence.

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