Hang Jury in Gbarpolu Statutory Rape Case -Judge Wesseh A. Wesseh Orders Retrial

MONROVIA – The trial jurors for the 16th Judicial Circuit Court for Gbarpolu County on Monday, January 6, 2025, failed to convict or acquit Defendant Peter Kanneh of the City of Bopolu, Gbarpolu County after a tense final legal argument ensued between Government Prosecutors led by Cllr. George Dayrall and Defense team led by Cllr. Legbah Molubah of the Gbarpolu Public Defender office.

Defendant Kanneh, 35, was indicted by the Grand Jurors for Gbarpolu County during the August A.D. 2024 Term of court for allegedly having sexual intercourse with his minor stepdaughter, only known as “MS”, on July 17, 2024, in their bedroom in the Promised Land Community of Gbarpolu City.

The indictment also alleged that Defendant Kanneh, a commercial motorcyclist returned home after his daily routine and met MS in the room after she came from taking bath and then dragged her on the bed and had sexual intercourse with the minor child and thereafter he threated to kill her if she told her mother who was on the road at the time selling. But the victim told her mother the next day after her mother noticed that she had remained in bed for so long on the morning of July 18, 2024.

During trial, the Prosecution produced several witnesses; including the alleged victim and her 9 years old brother who was home at the time when the incident allegedly occurred. The 9 years old witness testified how their father entered the room and locked the door and prevented the 9 years old and his smaller brother, aged 6, from reentering the room, but they heard MS crying in the room while the door was locked.

The Defendant denied the allegation and described it as frivolous and as concocted by his fiancé, MS’s mother who he said had threatened him in the past to put him in trouble because she had repeated accused him of extra marital affairs.

However, after the monthly trial the court entertained final legal argument on Monday, January 6, 2025, and thereafter the trial jurors were charged on factual and legal issues and then resolved into their room of deliberations before they returned with a hung verdict or hung jury. Eight of the empaneled jurors found the Defendant “Not Guilty”; while four returned a “guilty verdict” against the defendant.

The court, presided over by His Honor Wesseh Alphonsus Wesseh however, declared a new trial based on Section 20.11 of the Amended Act Title 22 of the Liberia Code of Law Reversed, Criminal Procedure, related to conduct of Criminal Trial and printed into hand bill, on May 22, 2013, which says that the “verdict shall be three-fourth, and shall be guilty or not guilty”. Meaning that only 9 of the 12 empaneled jurors may reach a decision to convict or acquit a defendant in a criminal trial. The court then declared a new trial  after  the jurors were pulled and then discharged, disbanded and the case ordered docketed to be tried by  a new team of jurors while the defendant was remanded at the Bopolu Central prison at the  amusement of parties.

Meanwhile, report reaching our desk have said the defense counsel of Gbarpolu County have file a motion before the court to admit the defendant to bail since in the mind of the defense lawyers, proof is not evidence or presumption great that the defense is guilty of the offense since the jurors could not reach a decision on his guilt.

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