The Supreme Court has cautioned and discharged Dr. Kpessa Whyte despite finding him guilty of contempt.
This follows his conviction on his own plea of guilty and deliberation by the court panel on what appropriate sanction to be meted out to him.
He initially pleaded not guilty to the charge of scandalising the court but later changed his plea to guilty with an explanation, and then subsequently pleaded guilty.
Justice Mariama Owusu in reading the judgment of the court in the contempt charges indicated that while the bench finds his comment worrying, the apology and steps taken by the convict contributed to the decision.
The Lecturer at the University of Ghana was convicted on his own plea on Tuesday, May 30.
The former National Democratic Congress (NDC) Parliamentary hopeful for Shai Osudoku appeared before a five-member panel of the Supreme Court presided over by Justice Mariama Owusu and pleaded guilty to the charges.
Prof. Kpessah-Whyte was charged with contempt following a tweet deemed inappropriate by the court.
Led by Justice Srem-Sai and Godwin Tamakloe, the contemnor pleaded with the court to temper Justice with mercy as he has already apologized for his comment.
The bench is currently deliberating over what sentence to give after the mitigating prayer by lawyers for Prof. Kpessah Whyte.
Background
Dr Kpessa-Whyte in a recent post on Twitter claimed the Supreme Court is being turned into a “Stupid Court.”
In his tweet, the university lecturer also lamented generally the state of Ghana’s current judiciary and accused it of partisanship and lack of common sense.
His tweets were published barely 24 hours after Ghana’s Supreme Court ordered Parliament to expunge the name of a NDC Member of Parliament, James Gyakye Quayson from its records citing procedural breaches during his nomination and election in 2020.