Liberia’s former justice minister and chief justice, Gloria Maya Musu-Scott, has been acquitted by the country’s Supreme Court of the murder of her niece. The 70-year-old and three female relatives had been sentenced to life in prison for the brutal February 2023 killing of 29-year-old Charlotte Musu.
This case captivated Liberia, as Musu-Scott had long been one of the nation’s most prominent judges and politicians, known for her advocacy for women’s rights. At the time of her conviction, she had just secured a significant legal victory against the electoral commission while working with the then-opposition party.
As Musu-Scott and her relatives were freed after serving over eight months in prison, a jubilant crowd greeted them outside. In her first comments after release, she expressed joy but also criticized the state of the justice system, stating, “There are a lot of innocent persons in jail in this republic. So I say thank you to the lawyers. But I say to them, there is still work to be done.”
Musu-Scott served as Liberia’s justice minister and later as the chief justice of the Supreme Court until her retirement in 2003. She transitioned to politics, serving as a lawmaker in Maryland County until 2012. Even after her judicial career, she remained active in the Unity Party, whose leader, Joseph Boakai, became president in January. She was part of the legal team that successfully challenged the electoral commission’s decision to block parties from accessing the voters’ roll.
In December, a lower court found Musu-Scott and her relatives guilty of stabbing her niece and conspiring to mislead the police. They were sentenced to life in January. Musu-Scott consistently denied the charges, maintaining that her niece was killed by an “assassin” who had entered her Monrovia home.
However, in Wednesday’s appeal verdict, Chief Justice Sie-A-Nyene Yuoh ruled that there was insufficient evidence to link Musu-Scott and her relatives to the crime. “The state did not meet the burden of proof to warrant the conviction of the defendants. Therefore, the defendants are hereby acquitted of the crimes of murder, criminal conspiracy… as charged in the indictment,” Justice Yuoh stated. The court noted that the evidence presented by state prosecutors failed to identify the individual responsible for the murder. It was also reported that the original conviction was based on circumstantial evidence.
Women’s rights groups have called for the memory of Charlotte Musu not to be forgotten. The Women Non-Governmental Organizations Secretariat of Liberia (Wongosol) released a statement expressing that the acquittal had “reopened wounds and ignited a sense of urgency to seek true justice” for the murdered woman. They emphasized that “justice cannot be sacrificed for the sake of the wrongly accused” and noted that the acquitted women would need support to rebuild their lives after enduring immense suffering.
