Monrovia – Associate Justice Kabineh M. Ja’neh has pleaded not guilty in an impeachment trial against him at the Senate. In his not guilty plea, his legal team also filed a “Motion for Discovery.”
Report by Henry karmo [email protected]
A ‘motion of discovery’ is a formal process of exchanging information between the parties about the witnesses and evidence to be presented at a trial. The purpose of discovery is to make the parties aware of the evidence that may be presented at trial.
Responding to the defense team’s request for ‘motion of discovery’, the Chief Justice said as a lone Justice presiding over the impeachment, he could not do that which the law confers on the Full Bench of the Supreme Court of Liberia.
Chief Justice Korkpor also denied an earlier motion for dismissal of the impeachment trial filed by the defense team of Justice Ja’neh. In the Chief Justice’s ruling, he said the same constitutional issues raised in the Writ of Prohibition filed by the movant before the Supreme Court were similar issues again raised in a re-petition file by four senators concerning the impeachment of the movant.
“I cannot quash or dismiss these impeachment proceedings for several reasons. Key amongst them is as follow to dismiss this proceeding means to put an end to this legislative proceeding. I cannot do this because neither the constitution nor the statutory law of our country gives me the authority to do so.
“This is a trial conducted by the Liberian Senate in which I have no vote of power to decide. I cannot also quash this impeachment because under our law a single justice cannot sit and decide constitutional issues.”
“For the foregoing reasons, the motion to dismiss or quash is hereby denied and dismissed.”
Motion to dismiss
The petitioners argue that in violation of Article 43 of the Constitution, which stipulates how an impeachment proceeding is to be held, on November 16, 2018, the Senate, purporting to adopt rules for the trial of impeachment, unilaterally amended Rule 63 of its Standing Rule to govern the procedure for the trial of Justice Ja’neh.
“Movant submits that this act by the Senate was unconstitutional because Article 43 of the Liberian Constitution mandates that rules governing impeachment must be jointly adopted by both Houses of the Legislature in a single document. Movant therefore submits that while Article 38 of the 1986 Constitution of Liberia authorizes each House to adopt individual rules for its internal governance, however, movant submits the Senate cannot use the authority grounded in Article 38 to comply with the provision of Article 43 which specifically mandates rules for impeachment to be jointly adopted by both Houses in a single document,” they argued in the petition.
The petition for dismissal further averred that although Article 38 of the Constitution authorizes each House to adopt individual rules for its internal governance, the Senate cannot use the authority grounded in Article 38 to comply with the provision of Article 43 which specifically mandates rules for impeachment to be jointly adopted by both Houses in a single document.
They further argued that the impeachments are special proceedings to be conducted by the Legislature, and not part of the law making, oversight and representation responsibility of the Legislature.
One-week extension
The defense lawyers also argued that because of the volume of the discovery that would be provided by the managers of the House of Representatives, they needed one week to review the discovery evidence, which request was granted by the Chief Justice for the defense team to take a week to prepare for the trial. The discovery evidence to be provided by the House of Representatives will include names of witnesses and testimonies.