PHOTO: 71-year-old man (in handcuff), Josiah Karwon convicted of raping and murdering chid
By Garmah Never Lomo, garmahlomo@gmail.com
Family members and other human right institutions, including the Rural Integrated Center for Community Empowerment (RICCE) and Women against Crimes, have raised eyebrows in disapproval over the verdict in the case of rape and murder of an eleven-year-old girl.
The assigned Circuit Court Judge James N. Gilayeneh rule in the case recently.
The group is especially questioning the verdict that sentenced a man, Josiah Karwon, age 71 to ten years in prison, describing it as very disproportionate to the scale of crime.
On January 14, 2019, an 11-year-old girl, Veroline Lougon went missing after she had gone to wash clothes at a nearby creek. She was later discovered dead, after allegedly been secretly buried in a swamp the following day.
RICCE and family members of the deceased are arguing that rape by itself is a second degree felony, whereas the condition set out in section 4 (a) (i)-(iv) are not met and that the maximum sentence for second degree rape is ten years.
The human rights groups challenging this verdict have cited the penal law Chapter 14.1 (a) (b) paragraph 2 that places murder in the rank of first degree felony and a person convicted of murder may be sentenced to death or life imprisonment, as provided in section 50.5 and 51.3 of the penal law of Liberia.
Evidently, the above provisions have not been applied in the two count charges of murder and rape convict, the family members of the child and the advocacy group claimed.
On January 14, 2019, an 11-year-old girl, Veroline Lougon went missing after she had gone to wash clothes at a nearby creek. She was later discovered dead, after allegedly been secretly buried in a swamp the following day.
After the discovery of the victim by community members and police officers, a fifteen men corridor jurors was set to examine the body and it was observed that the victim was rape and murder.
On the day of the incident, the defendant was seen with shovel, digger, cutlass and touch light coming from the same direction where the victim went missing with his close muddy and similar mud was discovered on the victim.
Convict Karwon was indicted by the state for kidnapping the 11- year girl on January 14 of this year.
The convict was arraigned in open court on November 21, 2019 and he pleaded innocent to the crimes, thereby joining issue with the state. Based on his plea of innocence, a fifteen-person trial jury was selected to preside over the matter.
During the trials, the prosecution produced seven general witnesses and one rebuttal witness while the defendant testified on his own behalf. But following his testimony, three persons were subpoenaed whom he said he worked for on the day of the incident.
However, the 8th Judicial Circuit Court in Sanniquellie City, Nimba County heard final argument into the matter, and jurors retired in the their room of deliberation to hand down a guilty verdict.
For his part, the Public Defender of Nimba County Tarlue Waylee took exception to the ruling in same vein as the County Attorney of Nimba County Cllr. Hector Quoigoah.
Meanwhile, the Assistant Minister of Litigation Wesseh A. Wesseh has threatened to file a motion seeking the correction of a judgement that doesn’t commensurate with the crime.