The Supreme Court on Tuesday April 30, 2024, heard arguments between government lawyers and the public defenders in the most talked about humiliation of three women who were stripped naked and paraded in Sinoe County in December of 2019.
During the arguments, government lawyers, headed by Cllr. Plato Jaba, argued that they proved their case beyond every reasonable doubt and proved a prima Facie case.
Cllr. Jaba further argued before the full bench of the Supreme Court that their witnesses then identified the defendants in court by calling their names and their testimonies corroborated during the trial in Buchanan City, Grand Bassa County.
However, the defendants were represented by the office of the public defense in Montserrado County.
Cllr. Bestman Juah of the public defense office argued that Judge Joe S. Barkon, Resident Judge of the Second Judicial Circuit Court in Grand Bassa County, made an error by sentencing the defendants to 45 years after initially sentencing them to 25 years.
Cllr. Juah added that five of the seven defendants, who were alleged to have been mistakenly arrested during police investigations, were even identified each by the victims in open court.
According to Cllr. Juah, two of the defendants, namely, Alex Karpeh, the country devil town crier, and Moses Solo, the country devil spokesperson, confessed that it was the both of them who committed the act.
Cllr. Juah was questioned by the Chief Justice, Sie-A-Nyene G. Yuoh, as to whether those defendants, now convicts, brought other witnesses to testify on their behalf, but the answer was negative.
The defendants were initially sentenced to 25 years, but it was later amended to 45 years after prosecution filed a motion to rescind the judge’s judgment and the first sentence was announced on September 5, 2019.
Torture is a basic human rights violation under both the Liberian Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
The case was transferred from Sinoe, where the act was committed, to Buchanan, in order to not impede the smooth conduct of the trial.
One of the defendants, who was the uncle to the girl that was raped and killed, Tweh Kelgbeh, later died at the Buchanan Government Hospital while the trial was ongoing.
During the argument on Tuesday September 17, 2019, in Buchanan city, state prosecutor Jarba argued that murder itself is a capital offense and deserves a sentence according to the Constitution; once a defendant is convicted, such punishment is life imprisonment.
The Grand Bassa County Attorney, during the trial, said rape sentence is 10 years, adding that the defendants never pleaded guilty, and more besides, they joined issue with the state, arguing that once those defendants were found guilty, they should have been sentenced to life imprisonment in line with the Constitution.
State prosecutor Jarba said the defendants never showed any remorse but rather joined issue with the state and even went ahead to file motion of new trial which the court denied based on legal reasons.
Cllr. Jarba added that if those defendants are sentenced to life, it will serve as a deterrent for would-be traditional people or violators of the law, adding that if the defendants could have pleaded guilty, then they could have been given a lesser sentence.
The State prosecutor prayed the High Court to sentence the defendants to life imprisonment due to the gravity of the case, and also for wasting the State resources, but the defense lawyer, Aaron D. Karlee, argued that the 1986 Constitution states that any statute that will promote harsh punishment is null and void.
Defense lawyer further cited Article 21 (d) (II) of the 1986 Constitution, which states that excessive bill should not be required, nor excessive fine imposed or excessive punishment, adding that the decision earlier taken by the judge to sentence the convicts to 25 years imprisonment was the right decision, and wants the High Court to sustain the judge’s sentence.
He questioned whether the judge can live with the condition in the Liberian prison, where the convicts can only be served one meal; therefore, he does not want the judge to discredit his earlier judgment, because of the “boastful motion” filed by prosecution.
Attorney Karlee therefore prayed the Supreme Court to deny and dismiss said motion filed by the prosecution, on grounds that the 25 years is sufficient for the convicts.
Meanwhile, the defense filed a six-count resistant and the court took keen interest in count four of said resistant, which states that the request of the prosecution for life imprisonment of the defendants violate Article 21(d) (II) of the 1986 Constitution, which states that excessive bill should not be required, nor excessive fine imposed or excessive punishment.
The defense lawyers prayed the court, among other things, that the motion filed by prosecution be denied and dismissed.
The court’s final judgment said from the facts and circumstances mentioned above, the court passed on one cardinal legal issue in making it determination as to whether the motion to correct the judgment will hold, whether or not the motion for the correction of judgment or sentence is required by law.
Judge Barkon answered in the affirmative, citing Chapter 23, Section 23.6 of the Criminal Procedure Law, which states that a person who has been convicted for a criminal action at the Circuit Court but claims that the sentence imposed violates the Constitution and or without jurisdiction or the sentence was excess of the maximum required by law.
Judge Barkon added that prosecution also has similar authority or legal right to file a motion to correct a judgment or sentence if they feel that the sentence does not commensurate with the evidence adduced in court.
The resident Judge of Grand Bassa County stated that in the instance case, the defendants should have been sentenced to prison for more than 25 years, because the law provides in Chapter 14 section 14.1(b) of the Penal Code that the punishment for murder should be a life sentence.
Judge Barkon disclosed that the same Penal Code, Chapter 51, Section 51.6, provides that the prosecution should not seek harshest sentence possible, but to seek the one for which the judgment is more likely to achieve.
Grand Bassa County Second Judicial Circuit Court Judge added that the Constitution being the organic law of Liberia has a bar with imposition of punishment in a sense.
He further stated that, alluding to the fact that Liberia is a signatory to many international protocols or treaties, death punishment has been set aside; that is, a person found guilty of murder should be sentenced to life or at the judge’s discretion.
The judge further narrated that, from the history of the case, the defendants at the prison from the point of investigation to rendering a guilty verdict were six; therefore, the convicts, at no time, showed remorse or consciousness to plead guilty of the crimes to which they were charged in the indictment, except after the guilty verdict during a pre-sentence hearing.
However, given the facts and circumstances that the evidence adduced during the trial, and defendants’ actions toward the survivors and victims, which was very disregarding and gruesome to devalue human dignity, he said, the court therefore modified its earlier final judgment of sentence from 25 years and added additional 20 years, making it 45 years.
