Gloria Musu-Scott | |
|---|---|
 Musu-Scott in 2015 | |
| Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Liberia | |
| In office 1997–2003 | |
Gloria Maya Musu-Scott is a former Liberian politician and jurist who served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court from 1997 until 2003. She and three other family members were convicted of murder in 2023 in connection with the death of her niece. Following an appeal, her and her family members were acquitted by the Supreme Court.
Scott was born in Monrovia and is a member of the Grebo people. [1] She has a bachelor's degree in economics and a law degree from the University of Liberia [2] and a LLM from Harvard Law School in 2017. [3]
Scott is a member of the Liberian National Bar Association and a co-founder of the Association of Female Lawyers of Liberia. [2] She was an assistant professor at the Louis Arthur Grimes School of Law at the University of Liberia. [2]
Scott was appointed Chief Justice of the five member Supreme Court in 1997, after the court was reconstituted following the civil war and the election of Charles Taylor. [4] [5] In February 2003, Scott read a ruling of the court which said it did not have legal jurisdiction over the rebel Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy to stop the second civil war in order to conduct a national census prior to the 2003 election. [6] She served on the court until August 2003, when the transitional government took effect. [7]
At the 2005 elections, Scott became the Junior Senator for Maryland County, representing the Unity Party. [8] [9] [10] In 2008, she spoke to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission about the need to look further beyond the events of 1979. [1] She lost her Senate seat in the 2011 election. [11]
Scott was the chairperson of the Constitution Review Committee which convened from 2013 until 2015. [12] [13] The CRC visited all 73 electoral districts and collected a total of 56,729 views from citizens. [14] In this role, Scott advocated for the participation of women as well as for the education of girls. [15] [16] Scott presented the Committee's final report to President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in August 2015. [17]
In 2016, Scott was named as one of a number of judges said to be bad debtors by the Liberia Banker Association, which said she had failed to pay $11,241.04 (~$14,271 in 2023) owed to the Liberian Bank for Development and Investment. [18]
In December 2023, Musu-Scott and three female family members were convicted of the stabbing murder of her niece Charlotte Musu in February 2023. The defendants were also found guilty of conspiracy and making a false report to law enforcement. Musu-Scott maintained that her niece had been killed by home invaders and alleged that the jury had been bribed to return a guilty verdict. She and the other defendants were sentenced to life in prison and interned at the Monrovia Central Prison. Musu-Scott subsequently lodged an appeal with the Supreme Court of Liberia. [19] On 28 August 2024, Musu-Scott and her family members were acquitted by the Supreme Court. [20]
Liberia, officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean to its south and southwest. It has a population of around 5.5 million and covers an area of 43,000 square miles (111,369 km2). The official language is English. Over 20 indigenous languages are spoken, reflecting the country's ethnic and cultural diversity. The capital and largest city is Monrovia.
Charles McArthur Ghankay Taylor is a Liberian former politician and convicted war criminal who served as the 22nd president of Liberia from 2 August 1997 until his resignation on 11 August 2003 as a result of the Second Liberian Civil War and growing international pressure.
Prince Yormie Johnson is a Liberian politician and former warlord who has served as a senator for Nimba County since 2006. A former rebel leader, Johnson played a prominent role in the First Liberian Civil War.
Charles Gyude Bryant was a Liberian politician and businessman. He served as the Chairman of the Transitional Government of Liberia from 14 October 2003 to 16 January 2006. The installation of the transitional government was part of the peace agreement to end the country's second civil war, which had raged since the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebelled against President Charles Taylor in 1999. Bryant was previously a businessman and was chosen as chairman because he was seen as politically neutral and therefore acceptable to each of the warring factions, which included LURD, the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL), and loyalists of former President Taylor. He was a prominent member of the Episcopal Church of Liberia, and was critical of the governments of Samuel Doe (1980–90) and Taylor (1997–2003).
General elections were held in Liberia on 11 October 2005, with a runoff election for the presidency held on 8 November. The presidency and all seats in the House of Representatives and Senate were up for election. The elections were the first held since 1997 and marked the end of the political transition following the second civil war, having been stipulated in the Accra Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2003. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former World Bank employee and Liberian finance minister, won the presidential contest and became the first democratically elected female African head of state in January 2006.
The Second Liberian Civil War was a civil war in the West African nation of Liberia that lasted from 1999 to 2003.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is a Liberian politician who served as the 24th president of Liberia from 2006 to 2018. Sirleaf was the first elected female head of state in Africa.
The University of Liberia is a publicly funded institution of higher learning located in Monrovia, Liberia. Authorized by the national government in 1851, the university opened in 1862 as Liberia College. UL has four campuses: the Capitol Hill Campus in Monrovia, the Fendall campus in Louisiana, outside Monrovia, the Medical School Campus in Congo Town, and the Straz-Sinje Campus in Sinje Grand Cape Mount County. The university enrolls approximately 18,000 students and is one of the oldest institutions of higher learning in West Africa. It is accredited by the Liberian Commission on Higher Education.
A new civil war began in 1999 when a rebel group backed by the government of neighboring Guinea, the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), emerged in northern Liberia. By the spring of 2001, they were posing a major threat to the Taylor government. Liberia was now engaged in a complex three-way conflict with Sierra Leone and the Guinea Republic. By the beginning of 2002, both of these countries were supporting the latest addition to the lexicon of Liberian guerrilla outfits – Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), while Taylor was supporting various opposition factions in both countries. By supporting Sierra Leonean rebels, Taylor also drew the enmity of the British and Americans.
Johnnie N. Lewis was a Liberian lawyer and politician who served as the 18th Chief Justice of Liberia from 2006 to 2012. Before his appointment to the Supreme Court, he served as a circuit judge in Liberia's judicial system.
Mary Tanyonoh Broh is the former mayor of Monrovia, the capital city of Liberia. She first served the Liberian government in March 2006 as the Special Projects Coordinator for President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's executive staff. In 2007, she was promoted to direct the Passport Bureau in a successful attempt to curtail and eliminate corruption and bribery within the division. In 2008, Broh became the Deputy Director of the National Port Authority. In February 2009, she was selected to serve as Acting Mayor of Monrovia in place of the previous mayor, Ophelia Hoff Saytumah, in the President's effort to legitimize the Monrovia City Corporation's (MCC) administrative and financial management. Although Broh was seated in February 2009 by appointment, rather than by the usual democratic election process, she was not officially confirmed by the Liberian Senate.
General elections were held in Liberia on 11 October 2011, with a second round of the presidential election on 8 November. The presidency, as well as all seats in the House of Representatives and half of the seats in the Senate, were up for election. The election was overseen by the National Elections Commission (NEC).
The 1980 Liberian coup d'état happened on April 12, 1980, when President William Tolbert was overthrown and murdered in a violent coup. The coup was staged by an indigenous Liberian faction of the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) under the command of Master Sergeant Samuel Doe. Following a period of transition, Doe ruled Liberia throughout the 1980s until his murder in 1990 during the First Liberian Civil War.
Sie-A-Nyene Gyapay Yuoh is a Liberian judge and politician who currently serves as chief justice of the Supreme Court of Liberia and was nominated on August 23, 2022. She began to serve after the retirement of former chief justice Francis Korkpor on September 27, 2022.
Emma Shannon Walser was a Liberian lawyer and jurist who became the country's first female judge in 1971.
Frances Johnson-Morris is a Liberian lawyer who was the chairperson of Liberian National Election Commission (NEC) in 2005 supervising the election that produced the first democratically elected female President of Liberia and Africa Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. She was also the chairwoman of the Liberian Anti-Corruption Commission.
Events in the year 2016 in Liberia.
Events in the year 2013 in Liberia.
Events in the year 2023 in Liberia.
Events in the year 2024 in Liberia.
