The trial jurors for the 16th Judicial Circuit Court for Gbarpolu County on Monday, January 6, 2025, acquitted Defendant Peter Kanneh of the City of Bopolu, Gbarpolu County after a tense final legal argument ensuing between Government Prosecutors led by Cllr. George Dayrall and the Defense team led by Cllr. Legbah Molubah of the Gbarpolu Public Defender office.
Defendant Kanneh age 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 on July 17, 2024, in their bedroom in the Promised Land Community of Gbarpolu City.
The indicted also alleged that Defendant Kanneh, a commercial motorcyclist returned home after his daily routine and met MS in the room after she came home from taking bathe and then dragged her onto the bed and had sexual intercourse with the minor child and thereafter he threatened to kill her if she told her mother who was on the road at the time selling, but told her mother the next days after her mother noticed that she had still in bed for so long on the morning of July 18, 2024.
However, during the trial, the Prosecution produced several witnesses; including MS and her 9-year-old brother who was home at the time when the incident allegedly occurred. The 9-year-old witness testified how their father entered the room locked the door and prevented the 9-year-old and his smaller brother age 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 repeatedly accused him of extramarital affairs.
However, after the monthly trial, the court entertained a final legal argument on Monday, January 6, 2025, and thereafter the trial jurors were charged with factual and legal issues and then resolved into their room of deliberations; before they returned the hung verdict or hung jury; in that 8 of the emplaned 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 the conduct of Criminal Trial and printed into handbill, on May 22, 2013, says “verdict shall be three-fourths 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 and disbanded and the was ordered docketed to be tried by a new jurors while the defendant was remanded at the Bopolu Central prison at the amusement of parties.
Meanwhile, a report reaching our desk has said the defense counsel of Gbarpolu County had filed a motion before the court to admit the defendant to bail since in the mind of the defense lawyers, the proof is not evidence or presumption great that the defense is guilty of the offense since the jurors could not decide on his guilt.
