Georgina Theodora Wood (née Lutterodt; born 8 June 1947) is a

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

ian judge and also a former police prosecution officer. She was the Chief Justice of Ghana and the first woman to occupy that position. She retired in 2017 after five decades of service to the state. She is a member of the

Council of State A Council of State is a governmental body in a country, or a subdivision of a country, with a function that varies by jurisdiction. It may be the formal name for the cabinet or it may refer to a non-executive advisory body associated with a head o ...

Early life and education

Georgina Lutterodt was born on 8 June 1947 in

. She had her basic education at Bishop's Girls and Methodist Schools,

Dodowa Dodowa is a town located in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana, it is the district capital of Dangme West district, now Shai Osudoku District. The city is 39 km from the capital city, Accra. The notable tourist site found there is the Dodowa ...

. She next attended Mmofraturo Girls School,

Kumasi Kumasi (historically spelled Comassie or Coomassie, usually spelled Kumase in Twi) is a city in the Ashanti Region, and is among the largest metropolitan areas in Ghana. Kumasi is located in a rain forest region near Lake Bosomtwe, and is t ...

between 1958 and 1960. Wood's

secondary education Secondary education or post-primary education covers two phases on the International Standard Classification of Education scale. Level 2 or lower secondary education (less commonly junior secondary education) is considered the second and final pha ...

was at

Wesley Girls' High School Wesley Girls' High School (WGHS) is an educational institution for girls in Cape Coast in the Central region of Ghana. It was founded in 1836 by Harriet Wrigley, the wife of a Methodist minister. The school is named after the founder of Methodism ...

, Cape Coast, which she completed in 1966. She proceeded to the

University of Ghana The University of Ghana is a public university located in Accra, Ghana. It the oldest and largest of the thirteen Ghanaian national public universities. The university was founded in 1948 as the University College of the Gold Coast in the Br ...

Legon Legon , a suburb of the Ghanaian city Accra, is situated about north-east of the city center in the Accra Metropolis District, a district in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. Legon is home to the main campus of the University of Ghana. ...

, where she was awarded the

LL.B. Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...

in 1970. Wood then attended the

Ghana School of Law The Ghana School of Law (GSL) is an educational institution in Ghana for training lawyers. The school is the only one that provides training for law graduates in the Barrister at Law program. The Professional Law Course is designed for Law Gradu ...

after which she was called to the bar. She also did a Post-Graduate Officers Training Course at the Ghana Police College.

Career

Wood worked with the

Ghana Police Service The Ghana Police Service (GPS) is the main law enforcement agency of Ghana. The service is under the control of the Ghanaian Ministry of the Interior, and employs over 30,000 officers across its 651 stations. Organisational structure The Ghana P ...

as a deputy superintendent and

public prosecutor A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the case in a criminal tria ...

for three years. She later joined the Judicial Service as a District Magistrate in 1974. She rose through the Circuit and High Courts to become the presiding judge of the

Appeal Court A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of t ...

in 1991. She was appointed to the Supreme Court by President

John Kufuor John Kofi Agyekum Kufuor (born 8 December 1938) is a Ghanaian politician who served as the President of Ghana from 7 January 2001 to 7 January 2009. He was also Chairperson of the African Union from 2007 to 2008. Kufuor's career has been spe ...

on 12 November 2002, an appointment she had earlier declined.

Georgina Wood committee

The Georgina Wood committee was set up on 4 July 2006 to investigate the disappearance from a shipping vessel MV Benjamin of 77 packets of cocaine on 26 April 2006. It was also to investigate an alleged 200,000 dollars bribe paid to senior police officers by a lady linked to a

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

n drug baron, and also the 588 kg of cocaine seized at Mempeasem, East Legon from the

Venezuelans Venezuelans ( Spanish: ''venezolanos'') are the citizens identified with the country of Venezuela. This connection may be through citizenship, descent or cultural. For most Venezuelans, many or all of these connections exist and are the source of ...

Chief Justice of Ghana

She was nominated for the position of Chief Justice of Ghana in May 2007. On 1 June 2007,the

Parliament of Ghana The Parliament of Ghana is the legislative body of the Government of Ghana. History Legislative representation in Ghana dates back to 1850, when the country was a British colony known as Gold Coast. The body, called the Legislative Council, ...

approved her nomination as the new Chief Justice of

by consensus. As at June 2007, this made her the first woman in the history of

to head the Judiciary and also made her at the time, the highest ranked female in Ghana's political history; that rank was surpassed by the appointment of Justice Joyce Adeline Bamford-Addo as Speaker of the 5th

's 4th Republic in January 2009. Chief Justice Wood assumed office on 15 June 2007. While in office, she swore-in four Presidents: the President John Evans Atta-Mills in January 2009, Vice-president

John Dramani Mahama John Dramani Mahama (; born 29 November 1958) is a Ghanaian politician who served as President of Ghana from 24 July 2012 to 7 January 2017. He previously served as Vice President of Ghana from January 2009 to July 2012, and took office as pres ...

upon the death of Atta-Mills on 24 July 2012, President-Elect

, winner of the December 2012 General Elections on 7 January 2013,

Nana Akuffo-Addo Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo ( ; born 29 March 1944) is a Ghanaian politician who has served as the president of Ghana since 7 January 2017. 2020 Ghanaian general election, In 2020, he was re-elected for his second term, which will end on 6 Janua ...

, winner of the December 2016 elections on 7 January 2017. She retired as Chief Justice in June 2017. She was succeeded by Justice Sophia Akuffo.

Council of State

On 20 June 2017, Wood was sworn in by President

as the 25th and final member of the Council of State. She is on the council by virtue of the fact that she is a former Chief Justice. It was the first time in 22 years that the vacancy had been filled as

had had no living retired Chief Justice since 1995.

Honours

On 7 July 2007, Wood was decorated with the

Order of the Star of Ghana The Order of the Star of Ghana is the highest award given by the Government of Ghana to any individual who had helped the cause of the country in one way or the other. Recipients of this award are decorated at a state function, chaired by the Pr ...

, the nation's highest honour. She was presented by President

Other roles

Wood is a choir leader at the Ringway Gospel Centre Assemblies of God Church, Accra. She is also the Chairperson of the Alternative Dispute Resolution in

. She has also served as a member of the Kenya Judges and Magistrates Vetting Board. She serves on the board of the

Global Justice Center The Global Justice Center (GJC) is an International human rights law, international human rights and International humanitarian law, humanitarian law organization aiming to advance gender equality by helping to implement and enforce human rights l ...

, an international human rights law organization based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

Family

Wood is married to Edwin Wood, a retired banker.

Controversies

September 2008 NPP Land Allocation

On Thursday 7 October 2010, Wood was among 15 people named by the Committee for Joint Action as a beneficiary of allegedly illegal land allocation by the former NPP government. In an official statement, the committee claimed: According to Accra urban redevelopment researcher Tom Gillespie:

References

External links

Pictures from vetting by Parliament of Ghana
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wood, Georgina Theodora 1947 births Living people 20th-century Ghanaian judges 21st-century Ghanaian judges University of Ghana alumni Recipients of the Order of the Star of Ghana Constitutional court women judges Women chief justices Ghanaian women judges Members of the Council of State (Ghana) Justices of the Supreme Court of Ghana Former Methodists 20th-century women judges 21st-century women judges