Humorous Interludes in Criminal Cases
| Published date | 01 October 1931 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X3100400409 |
| Author | H. E. Smith |
| Date | 01 October 1931 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Humorous Interludes in Criminal
Cases
BY
MAJOR
H.
E.
SMITH, M.C.
MONG
the many West African stories told on the Coast
A
pertaining to things criminal, perhaps the most humorous
is
that of the absent-minded Judge who rebukingly remarked
to a shouting and swearing murderer on whom he had just
passed sentence of death,
‘
If
you don’t keep quiet in this
Court
I
shall have to deal with you
much
more severely
J
!
’
One qlso hears of the condemned native
of
Herculean
proportions who forcibly and successfully resisted the pinion-
ing prior to his execution until he received the promise that he
would be hanged with
a
new
rope
!
There
is
the tale of the African who, after arresting a
small crowd of prisoners, slaked his thirst
so
frequently with
palm wine that
his
legs refused to function, and in a state of
glorious inebriation and complete helplessness was carried the
distance home by his
‘
charges
’
in a stretcher they improvised
by slinging his raincoat between a length
of
bamboo and his
own shot-gun
!
!
Always diverting
is
the display of mentality exhibited by
a warder who, when the one
of
his
two
convict prisoners
escaped, turned and shot point-blank the harmless convict re-
maining
by
his side,
in
order to avoid punishment for allowing
them
both
to escape.
With variations one also listens to the yarn of the convict
who, unaccompanied, was sent several miles by his warder to
retrieve the
gun
the latter had forgotten and left at the working
place in the bush. On the prisoner’s later return to the gaol
night had fallen, and he knocked on the main gate for admit-
tance, giving such particulars of himself as he thought neces-
557
Assistant
Commissioner,
Gold
Coast
Police
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