Along With Her 3 Family Members Who Lower Court Give Life Sentence
FLASHBACK: Former Chief Justice arguing on her own behalf in Court
By Garmah Never Lomo, garmahlomo@gmail.com
TEMPLE OF JUSTICE, Monrovia—The fate of former Chief Justice Cllr. Gloria Musu Scott and three family members who are serving life sentence for murder, hangs in the balance as the Supreme Court of Liberia is poised to hand down their verdict on an appeal filed by defense lawyers against the lower court’s guilty verdict.
Criminal Court “C” found Cllr. Scott and her three family members guilty of murdering her daughter, Charloe Musu at her residence in Brewerville outside Monrovia. At one point State Prosecutors filed a motion for change of venue to transfer the murder trial of Ex-Liberia Chief Justice Cllr. Gloria Musu Scott from the capital to a nearby county over fear of local prejudice, State Prosecutors Want Cllr. Gloria Scott’s Murder Trial Venue Changed—Why? – News Public Trust
The Supreme Court verdict is expected to be handed down this Wednesday, August 28,2024, when the fate of Liberia’s former second female Chief Justice Cllr. Gloria Musu Scott and three of her family members are to be decided.
The high court might have the seating ceremony of newly appointed and commissioned Associate Justice Ceaineh Clinton Johnson.
It is still not clear whether the Supreme Court will close for its March Term of court, while awaiting the opening of the October term of court.
Legal arguments and background
During legal arguments in the Gloria Scott murder case on July 16,2024, state prosecutors told the Supreme Court that they Convicted Justice Scott on Circumstantial Evidence. Some legal analysts said that the line of questioning by justices of the Supreme Court may indicate that the life imprisonment imposed against former Chief Justice Gloria Musu Scott and three of her family members will be reversed.
The jury of Criminal Court “C” in last year unanimously pronounced Justice Scott and her co-defendants guilty of allegedly using a kitchen knife to stab Charloe Musu to death. Based on the jury’s verdict, Judge Roosevelt Willie immediately sentenced the defendants to life imprisonment, despite the defendants challenging the judge’s decision, and appealed against it to the highest court, which appeal arguments was held on Tuesday, July 16.
During the arguments, Cllr. Bobby Livingstone, lead government lawyer who pressed for the conviction of former Chief Justice Gloria Musu Scott and three of her family members told the justices that the state case was based on circumstantial evidence.
While arguing for nearly three hours Cllr. Livingstone repeated that “our case theory was based on circumstantial evidence since defendants failed to point out who did the killing.”
Circumstantial evidence is indirect evidence that does not, on its face, prove a fact in issue but gives rise to a logical inference that the fact exists. At that point, Chief Justice Sie-A-Nyene Yuoh asked Cllr. Livingstone whether all of the defendants took the knife at the same time to stab Charloe Musu to death.
Further to that, Associate Justice Jamesetta Howard Wolokolie pressed Cllr. Livingstone to explain if the defendants use separate knives to stab Charloe Musu.
“It was by circumstantial evidence that we indicted all of the defendants,” Cllr. Livingstone replied to the justices concerned about who actually stabbed Charloe Musu to death These responses prompted the justices to establish that prosecution case was based on presumption and assumption and not on prime facies evidence.
But Cllr. Livingstone contended that there was no intruder discovered during the commission of the crimes, as being allege by the defendants.
Again, the justices asked Cllr. Livingstone to clarify whether the Liberian Pathologist Dr. Benedict Kolee DNA Analysis link any of the defendants to the crimes of murder, criminal conspiracy and making false statement to law enforcement officer, as they were charged.
When asked by Justice Yamie Gbeisay, what makes him to believe that all of the defendants committed the crime including Rebecca Yonder Winser? For Justice Yussif Kaba, his question was why the police charge sheet or indictment did not point out each role played by the defendants?
According to Kaba, the government lawyers rush in prosecuting the case without doing in-depth investigations or going beyond the police reports. “I don’t know why you went to prosecute? I’m confused and I’m still waiting to hear on what evidence you use to prosecute those people?” Kaba asked.
Providing suggestion, Kaba said, the prosecutors was to investigate whether there was any quarrel among the family prior to the incident.
Livingstone could not directly answer the concerns raised by the justices during the arguments, which presupposes that Justice Scott and her co-defendants life imprisonment could be overturn.
Impeached Associate Justice Kabineh Ja’neh that argued on behalf of the defense answering to a question whether the state establish a prima facie case against the defendants to warrant the entry of a judgment of conviction against them?
Cllr. J’aneh replied was “the state lawyers did not present one single eye witness to the perpetration of the crime of murder as alleged in the indictment.” According to Ja’neh, they proceeded to prove their case, but failed to do so, beyond a reasonable doubt on the strength of conflicting forensic and circumstantial evidence adduced during the trial.
Justice Ja’neh also argued that the Liberian pathologist is a clinical psychologist and not a forensic pathologist. He furthered argied that the DNA analysis should pointed out the perpetrator of the crime
“Dr. Benedict Kolee who is the government pathologist admitted that he discovered male DNA chromosome, but he said it was very small which he thinks didn’t contribute to the commission of the crimes.”