Liberia’s former chief justice sentenced to life for murder

January 10, 2024 2

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Liberia’s former Chief Justice Gloria Musu Scott has been sentenced to life imprisonment along side three of her family members.

They were found guilty by a court for murder. Musu Scott and the three other family members were arrested and indicted in June last year.

The convicts were arrested and indicted in connection with the death of Charlotte Musu, Ms Scott’s niece.

Ms Scott’s lawyers said they would appeal the judgement with the convicts maintaining their innocence.

In February last year, Charlotte, the reported niece of the ex-chief justice was killed by unknown people at her home in Brewerville, north-west Liberia.

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The prosecution said in its indictment that on the evening of 22 February 2023, the retired judge Musu-Scott, Gertrude Newton, Alice Johnson and Rebecca Youdeh Wisner armed themselves with a sharp instrument believed to be a knife, and pepper spray.

“They wilfully, intentionally, purposely and maliciously inflicted several bodily injuries on Charlotte Musu, leading to her death and thereby committing the crime of murder,” according to the indictment.

The defence by the ex-chief justice

The former chief justice said intruders rather broke into her residence and killed the said niece.

The court though last month found her and the three family members guilty of Charlotte’s murder after a five-month trial.

A jury delivered the guilty verdict after hearing from both the prosecution and defence lawyers. They were found guilty of conspiracy and raising a false alarm to law enforcement officers.

The court in the capital Monrovia, on Tuesday accepted the prosecution’s evidence as compelling and sentenced the ex-chief justice and her accomplices to lifetime imprisonment.

Frances Johnson-Allison, who also served as chief justice of Liberia’s Supreme Court from 1996-1997 represented Musu-Scott as one of her lawyers.

He was quoted by The Africa Report as saying that the ruling came as a surprise to the former chief justice and her defence team.

“The justice system is seriously challenged, and all this is due to poverty. People with no means of income are randomly selected to serve as jurors and promised a huge amount of money to influence their judgment. It’s a challenge to the rule of law,” Johnson-Allison said.

Retired judge turned convict

Scott was appointed Chief Justice of the five member Supreme Court in 1997, after the court was reconstituted following the civil war and the election of Charles Taylor as president.

She served on the court until August 2003, when the transitional government took effect.

Scott became the Junior Senator for Maryland County, representing the Alliance for Peace and Democracy during the 2005 elections. She lost her Senate seat in the 2011 election.

Scott was the chairperson of the Constitution Review Committee which convened from 2013 until 2015.