Ahead of the imprisoned former Chief Justice, Cllr. Gloria Musu Scott, and her three relatives appearing in court to answer to the Liberia National Police (LNP) charges of murder, criminal conspiracy and providing false information to law enforcement officers, legal luminaries are arguing that under no circumstance can the government prove that Cllr. Scott murdered her niece, Charloe Musu, with a shocking observation that the Minister of Justice, Cllr. Frank Musa Dean, is again leading state prosecutors into another failed legal battle.
Cllr. Scott and three of her family members, Getrude Newton, Rebecca Y. Wisner and Alice C. Johnson, who were arrested on Tuesday but released on Wednesday through a Writ of Habeas Corpus filed by their lawyers, were rearrested and sent to Monrovia Central Prison (South Beach) on Thursday for alleged murder, criminal conspiracy and false reports to law enforcement officers.
But a number of lawyers have argued that, as it stands the murder charge is nothing but a complete “charade”, and it is better for state prosecutors to drop the case now and avoid serious embarrassment than to pretend that they are pursuing a murder case against Justice Scott.
According to the team of legal professionals who spoke to the Hot Pepper over the weekend, investigators of the matter have said that there was no intruder into the home of Cllr. Scott during the night of the incident, and suspected that a fist-fight may have erupted between Charloe and other members of the family, which unintentionally led to her death; as such, the prosecution’s best option is to charge the girl with the wound (possible culprit) with manslaughter, negligent homicide and providing false information to law enforcement; and criminal facilitation and criminal conspiracy for Justice Scott and the others.
“These are all bailable offenses,” they said. “Since it is suspected that there was a fist-fight between the deceased and the other girl resulting to death, manslaughter is best suited, and for the alleged omission of Justice Scott and others in the home at the time of the incident, negligent homicide will do.”
They said it appears like Cllr. Scott is out to protect her daughter, who may have been involved in the suspected fist-fight with Charloe Musu, from serving maximum prison sentence for her alleged crime. They noted that Cllr. Scott knows the law, and with a security mind, which makes it more apparent that, even though she may not have committed the crime, she is enduring the punishment, but with optimism that her entire family will be acquitted at the end.
The legal luminaries expressed skepticism that Minister Dean is misleading the Government of Liberia (GOL) in staging fake and baseless murder charge against the former Chief Justice and others in the gruesome murder of Charloe Musu. They alleged that the Justice Minister is in the saddle of the ploy and knows that the prosecution cannot prove murder charges, yet he has made it to appear like Justice Scott and the others committed murder.
They claimed that Justice Scott is innocent, and nobody can prove murder charges against her; however, she is the big “elephant” in the matter and once she is set free on fake murder charges everyone will get out. “Precious state resources would be wasted on what seems a complete ‘circus’ and at the end the entire nation would be left in a state of oblivion and Justice Scott and others will walk out free. This is a comic-tragedy that the nation faces,” the legal professionals claimed.
They called for the establishment of an independent counsel to do a forensic criminal investigation along with a team of police officers to collect material evidence relevant to the matter if the state should win the case in court. “The President should appoint an Independent Counsel who will reconstruct the entire crime scene, do fingerprints of all of the occupants, on the body and on instruments found at the scene and then conduct a detailed investigation, forensically analyzing the evidence gathered to determine its materiality and probative value relevant to the alleged murder case,” the legal professionals maintained.
Providing their legal advice on how to go about the case, they suggested that the first approach is for the independent counsel, to be established by the President, to enter a nolle prosequi in favor of the defendants, with reservation or with the right to re-file, and that is drop the murder charge, get the mobile phones of all of the defendants and review their call logs on the night of the incident to determine who they talked to or who talked to them, determine the angulation of those who received and made calls to them, their proximity to the crime scene and invite them for investigation irrespective of their positions or status on the social scale.
The legal minds also recommended that the current team of prosecutors be disbanded, end the drama that is attracting more pro bono lawyers for the defendants and remove the case from under the control and supervision of the Minister of Justice.
They claimed that the same “private” lawyers who represented Minister Musa Dean at the Supreme Court of Liberia in his contempt case are now the same lawyers for Justice Scott, arguing that the charges against Cllr. Scott are stage-managed, with the ultimate objective of acquitting her and the others.