Judge Halts Sam Jackson Trial Over Autopsy Report the Defense Says It Has Never Seen

Published: May 18, 2026

MONROVIA — A Monrovia court suspended proceedings Friday in the death investigation of Toni Khumal Jackson after defense lawyers revealed they have waited nearly three months for an autopsy report the prosecution has yet to hand over, and asked the court to let an outside pathologist examine the body independently.

Resident Circuit Judge Roosevelt Z. Willie, presiding over the May Term 2026 sitting of Criminal Court ‘A’ at the Temple of Justice, granted the defense’s application for an independent pathologist but stopped short of authorizing the examination immediately. The prosecution, he said, was entitled to first review the proposed expert’s credentials and curriculum vitae before any independent review could proceed.

“This court says that application is granted since there is no resistance except that the condition set by the prosecution to have his credentials or CV presented for revision will be met,” Willie ruled. “And it is hereby so ordered. Matters suspended.”

Defense counsel argued in court that a pathologist’s role is specifically to conduct autopsies and interpret medico-legal findings on cause of death, and that an independent examination would not undermine the prosecution’s evidence but would provide what they called “cogent support” for the defense’s challenge of state forensic findings. They told the court that a pathologist from Sierra Leone is prepared to travel to Liberia to carry out the examination once documentation and court permissions are secured.

The defense also pressed the court to compel the prosecution to produce the autopsy report, arguing they cannot mount a credible independent review without first seeing what the state’s forensic investigation concluded. Nearly three months have passed, defense lawyers said, since the prosecution allegedly conducted the autopsy on Toni Jackson’s remains, yet no copy of the official report has been shared with the defense.

The prosecution did not oppose the independent examination outright but insisted on the credential verification condition before any examination moves forward.

A second and separately contentious issue before the court Friday involved a defense motion seeking to rescind an earlier court ruling. Defense lawyers argued the motion may already be dead on arrival under Liberian law, which limits a court’s authority to modify or rescind a ruling to the same term in which it was originally issued. The original ruling, they argued, was handed down during the February Term. The court is now sitting in its May Term, which the defense contended strips the court of jurisdiction to act on the rescission motion at all.

The prosecution opposed that argument, and both sides exchanged extended legal arguments before Willie declined to rule on the matter Friday, saying a separate determination would follow.

The death of Toni Khumal Jackson, wife of economist Sam Jackson, has drawn sustained public attention since it first came before the courts, with questions about the circumstances surrounding her death and the handling of forensic evidence fueling calls for transparency and strict adherence to due process.