LIBERIA: 3 SENTENCED TO DEATH BY HANGING IN BASSA

January 27, 2016: The second Judicial Circuit Court in Grand Bassa County has sentenced three persons to death by hanging, having been convicted of killing one Nimely Tarr in August 2014 for ritualistic purpose. According to the court record, Samuel Targbehn, Emmanuel Juludoe and James Reeves extracted some of the deceased’s body parts, including the private organs. They are all residents of Paytoe Town in District #1, Grand Bassa County.
They were indicted for the crime of murder by the Grand Jury on March 2, 2015, for conspiring to commit the crime of murder in violation of Title 26, Chapter 14, and Section 14.1 of the Penal Law of Liberia.
The defendants had earlier received US$200 from an unidentified person in exchange for human parts.
According to the indictment, on August 9, 2014, the late Nimely Tarr left his Woe Town residence for Paytoe Town where he encountered the three men, who lured him to a nearby sugarcane farm and murdered him in cold blood.
The court’s ruling meanwhile said that during the trial the defendants admitted receiving US$200 to sell human parts, and this being a ritualistic practice, the court found the three guilty of the crime of murder. It was pronounced that the defendants should be executed by hanging in the graveyard of upper Buchanan between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.
The state was represented by Cllr. Samuel K. Jacob, while the defendants were represented by the County Public Defender, Cllr. Paul P. Jarvan, who took exception to the ruling, adding that they will take an appeal to the Supreme Court. (Sources: liberianobserver.com, 27/01/2016)