Liberia: Court Convicts former Chief Judge for Murder

Liberia’s former chief judge, Gloria Musu-Scott, along with three other relatives, have been found guilty of murder.

After serving for six years as chief justice of Liberia, Gloria Musu-Scott, the ex-chief justice, was served with murder charges, warranting her ordeal in indictment just after several months of investigation into what started with finding the murder of her niece, Charlotte Musu.

However, before the indictment, the justice alleged that the death of her niece was due to intruders’ attacks on the judge’s residence.

According to the indictment, evidence reveals on the evening of 22 February 2023 that, 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. The four women were also found guilty of conspiracy and raising a false alarm to law enforcement officers to avert suspicion.

The four were arrested and indicted in June 2023 in connection with the death of Charlotte Musu, the niece of the former chief justice.

Five months into the trial, the jury in the trial of Liberian former chief justice Gloria Musu-Scott reached its verdict on 21 December, finding Gloria Musu-Scott and three other family members guilty of murder.

The guilty verdict means life sentences for the former chief justice and the three other defendants unless they obtain relief from the Supreme Court of Liberia, to which they have appealed.

“We are resisting the verdict, and we are going to file a motion for a new trial in the coming weeks”, says the defendant’s lawyer, Johnson-Allison.

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Mayowa Durosinmi

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M. Durosinmi is a West Africa Weekly investigative reporter covering Politics, Human Rights, Health, and Security in West Africa and the Sahel Region

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