By Grace Q. Bryant
The Supreme Court has overturned the twenty-five-year murder sentence involving Johnetta Pinky Abu in Paynesville, ELWA.
Convict Abu was sentenced to twenty five years imprisonment for stabbing her fiancé, Morris Johnson, to death, during a fistfight on June 14, 2018.
Abu was expected to spend twenty two years behind bars, while serving the remaining three years on probation, based on good moral conduct.
She was charged with the crime of murder by the Liberia National Police and indicted by the Grand Jury of Montserrado County.
The Supreme Court affirmed the ruling of the trial court but with modification.
According to the Supreme Court, it is by law that the Supreme Court is authorized to render the Judgment that the lower court should have rendered.
The full bench furthered that in the instant case, the evidence adduced during the trial established that the appellant (Abu) acted under extreme mental and emotional disturbance, which negates the element of malice required for murder.
“This, nevertheless, does not exempt her from the act of the killing; it however downgrades the crime from murder to manslaughter,” the high court noted.
“The appellant (Abu) is hereby adjudged guilty of manslaughter and therefore sentenced to the maximum of five years imprisonment. If the appellant has been incarcerated for five years or more, she shall be released forthwith,” the Supreme Court stated.
The High Court further ordered the Clerk of the Court to send a mandate to the court below, commanding the judge presiding therein to resume jurisdiction over the case and enforce the Judgment with no cost.
