BY Peter Toby, tobypeter71@gmail.com
Miss Jannetta Pinky- Abu, a 26-year-old female Student of the state owned University of Liberia has been found guilty of killing her boyfriend by the Trial Jury of Criminal Court ‘A’ at Temple of Justice.
The guilty verdict was handed down on the eve of the New Year (December 31, 2018), after a period of court trial for allegedly taking away the life of her fiancée, Mr. Morris Johnson.
Nine out of the twelve Jurors who listened to the facts in the case, agreed that the weight of evidence provided in Court by government lawyers were convincing for the conviction of the UL Student for murder, while three jurors disagreed with their colleagues’ verdict consistent with law.
But defense lawyer Cllr. Arthur Tamba Johnson took exception to the majority verdict saying, he will filed a motion for new trial consistent with Chapter 22, Section 22.1 of Criminal Procedure Law of Liberia.
According to him, the majority verdict when contrary to the weight of the evidence adduce in Court by the government lawyers claiming that his pending application will allow the Court to set the verdict aside.
For his part, Government Chief Prosecutor in Montserrado County, Cllr. Edwin Martin’s welcomed the jurors’ verdict. He said that the majority verdict clearly showed that they prove murder against the 26-year-old UL Student as provided by Chapter 14, Section 14.1 of the Criminal Procedure law of Liberia.
On November 21, 2018, Student Jannetta Pinky-Abu’s pleaded Not Guilty thereby shifting the burden on government lawyer to prove murder against her but failed to prove her in line with Chapter 25, Section 25.5 of the Civil Procedure Law of Liberia.