Edward Kwame Wiredu

Edward Kwame Wiredu (died 2008) was a Ghanaian judge who served as the tenth Chief Justice of Ghana since independence, appointed by President John Kufuor in November 2001 and retiring in May 2003 for health reasons after thirty-four years on the bench. Called to the English bar at Middle Temple in 1960, he became a High Court judge in 1969, an Appeal Court judge in 1980, and a Supreme Court judge in 1990, and as Chief Justice he introduced Ghana's Fast Track High Courts, alternative dispute resolution, and the Judicial Institute. He was known as a strong advocate for judicial independence, and as a young lawyer he entered a plea of not guilty on behalf of Jerry Rawlings at his 1979 trial.