A Liberian women's organisation has backed Chief Justice Yamie Quiqui Gbeisay Sr.'s call for Liberia to abolish trial by jury, arguing that tampering and corruption have destroyed public confidence in verdicts. The Young Liberian Women Organization for Improvement (WOFIM) said the jury system no longer protects fair trials, in a development reported by FrontPage Africa on 11 November 2026.

WOFIM said alleged jury tampering, corruption and the manipulation of verdicts were eroding trust in the courts and threatening justice. In a press statement issued on 22 October and released on 30 October, the organisation said a desk review using Afrobarometer data put public trust in Liberia's justice system at only 37 percent. It called for Article 20(a) of the 1986 Constitution, which guarantees the right to trial by jury, to be amended.

What the Chief Justice proposed

Chief Justice Gbeisay made the call on 12 October 2026, at the opening of the October Term of the Supreme Court in Monrovia. He said jury tampering had contaminated verdicts and stalled the fight against corruption and drug crime, and he asked Liberians to consider abolishing trial by jury through constitutional reform.

“We have seen cases delayed for years, mistrials declared, witnesses missing, verdicts questioned – not because the laws were unclear, but because the jury room was contaminated,” Gbeisay said, according to Analyst Liberia. “The eradication of the trial jury system is not an abandonment of the people; it is instead a protection of the people.”

He invited the President, the Speaker and members of the Legislature, the Senate, the Liberian National Bar Association, the Law Reform Commission and other justice stakeholders to examine the question honestly and to commission constitutional reform.

Nothing has been abolished

The Judiciary has stressed that no decision has been taken and that the Chief Justice cannot abolish the jury himself. A research paper published by the Judiciary on 15 October 2026 said no speech from the Chief Justice could abrogate a right written into the Constitution, and that his words were addressed to the Liberian people, the only body with the authority to decide.

The paper also corrected a widespread reading of the address. It said the Chief Justice was not accusing judges of corruption, but describing people outside the courts who buy or intimidate jurors. “Citizens called from the public to serve as jurors are not employees of the Judiciary; they are peers of the accused,” the paper noted. It cited jury tampering in the 8th Judicial Circuit in Nimba County in 2022, where a deputy marshal assigned to the circuit was used as a conduit to contaminate the jury.

Senators push back

The proposal has drawn strong opposition in the Senate. Montserrado County Senator Abraham Darius Dillon and Gbarpolu County Senator Amara Konneh have both rejected abolition, arguing that trial by jury is a fundamental constitutional right. Dillon has said removing it would require a national referendum under the amendment process set out in Article 91 of the Constitution.

Critics of the proposal, including commentators in the Liberian press, argue that the answer to jury tampering is to strengthen the administration of justice, investigate corruption and enforce existing laws, rather than remove a constitutional protection.

What happens next

The debate now moves to Liberia's political institutions. Any change to the jury system would need legislative approval followed by ratification in a national referendum, so the Chief Justice's call opens a national conversation rather than settling the question. WOFIM's backing adds a civil society voice to that debate, but the jury system remains in place while Liberians decide whether to keep it, reform it or remove it.