All posts tagged: Jurors

Jurors In Daniel Penny Trial Say They Can’t Reach Unanimous Verdict On Manslaughter Charge

Jurors In Daniel Penny Trial Say They Can’t Reach Unanimous Verdict On Manslaughter Charge

Published by skeptic

Authored by Michael Washburn via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), A judge on Dec. 6 directed the jury in the Daniel Penny trial to continue deliberating after jurors said they were unable to reach a unanimous verdict on the top charge of manslaughter. Daniel Penny arrives at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York on Jan. 17, 2024. Frank Franklin II/AP Photo Penny was charged with manslaughter in the second degree and criminally negligent homicide in last year’s subway choking death of Jordan Neely. “At this time, we are unable to come to a unanimous vote on Count One, manslaughter in the second degree,” the jurors said in a note to the judge. The jurors had been deliberating since Tuesday. In response, Judge Maxwell Wiley directed the jurors to keep deliberating in an attempt to reach a unanimous decision in what is known as an Allen charge. The defense had objected to the issuing of an Allen charge and asked the judge to order a mistrial, saying, “We are concerned that the giving of an Allen …

Jurors ask to rehear testimony from key witnesses in Trump hush money trial

Jurors ask to rehear testimony from key witnesses in Trump hush money trial

Published by Sam

The jury in Donald Trump’s hush money trial ended its first day of deliberations without a verdict Wednesday but asked to rehear testimony from key witnesses about the alleged hush money scheme at the heart of the history-making case. The 12-person jury was sent home around 4 p.m. after about 4 1/2 hours of deliberations. The process is to resume Thursday, when jurors are expected to rehear the requested testimony and at least part of the judge’s legal instructions meant to guide them on the law. The notes sent to the judge with the requests were the first burst of communication with the court after the panel of seven men and five women was sent to a private room just before 11:30 a.m. to begin weighing a verdict. “It is not my responsibility to judge the evidence here. It is yours,” Judge Juan M. Merchan told jurors before dispatching them to begin deliberations, reminding them of their vow during the selection process to judge the case fairly and impartially. It’s unclear how long the deliberations …

Jurors won’t like it”: Experts say Trump lawyer’s victim-shaming of Stormy Daniels was a “disaster

Jurors won’t like it”: Experts say Trump lawyer’s victim-shaming of Stormy Daniels was a “disaster

Published by skeptic

Trump defense attorney Susan Necheles did not listen to her critics. Instead of dialing back the aggressiveness she showed Tuesday, when she first began cross-examining Stormy Daniels, she leaned into it on Thursday, deploying what an NBC legal analyst referred to as the “nutty and slutty” attack. Daniels earlier in week discussed in at-times mortifying detail an alleged sexual encounter she had with Donald Trump in 2006. Her account was in fact so detailed as to upset the judge, who said some of her testimony went beyond what should have been said in the courtroom. Necheles could have moved on, content to show that Daniels has no idea whether the former president falsified business records to cover up the $130,000 hush payment received. Instead, as NBC’s Lisa Rubin noted, she engaged in a “constant” effort to paint Daniels as promiscuous and unreliable, quizzing her about everything from sexual partners to a side hustle involving tarot cards. “You claimed to be able to speak with people’s dead relatives, right?” Necheles asked, to which Daniels responded: “I …

Judge Asked to Question Jurors Who Awarded Million in New Hampshire Youth Center Abuse Case

Judge Asked to Question Jurors Who Awarded $38 Million in New Hampshire Youth Center Abuse Case

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CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Attorneys for a man who prevailed in a landmark lawsuit over abuse at New Hampshire’s youth detention center asked a judge Tuesday to reconvene and question jurors, some of whom have expressed dismay that the $38 million award could be slashed by nearly 99%. A jury on Friday awarded $38 million to David Meehan, who alleged that the state’s negligence allowed him to be repeatedly raped, beaten and held in solitary confinement as a teenager at the Youth Development Center. But the attorney general’s office is seeking to reduce the award under a state law that allows claimants against the state to recover a maximum of $475,000 per “incident.” Three distraught jurors have since contacted Meehan’s attorneys, including the jury foreperson, who described feeling “devastated” and “duped,” and another who said the state is misinterpreting the verdict. No hearing has been scheduled, but here are some things to know about how the dispute unfolded. Meehan, 42, went to police in 2017 and sued the state three years later. Since then, 11 …

Jurors Should Have Considered Stand-Your-Ground Defense in Sawed-Off Shotgun Killing, Judges Rule

Jurors Should Have Considered Stand-Your-Ground Defense in Sawed-Off Shotgun Killing, Judges Rule

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RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A man convicted of killing his landlord’s adult son with a sawed-off shotgun is entitled to a new trial because the presiding judge failed to instruct jurors about a possible self-defense argument, the state Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday. A three-judge panel vacated the first-degree murder conviction of Ronald Wayne Vaughn Jr. in the 2017 shooting death of Gary Somerset. Vaughn was on the porch of the Lincoln County trailer he was renting and had the weapon when Somerset yelled “Let’s end this” and rushed at him, according to Tuesday’s opinion. The two and Somerset’s mother had been in a heated argument. Vaughn was sentenced in part to life in prison without parole. Possessing a gun like the one Vaughn used —a Winchester .410 caliber shotgun with a sawed-off barrel that makes it easier to conceal and potentially more destructive — is a felony, and Vaughn was also convicted on that count. The state’s “stand-your-ground” law says a person is justified in using force and has no duty to retreat when …

“Worse than anything else”: Expert says Trump’s attacks on jurors are “especially” troubling

“Worse than anything else”: Expert says Trump’s attacks on jurors are “especially” troubling

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Donald Trump’s attacks on witnesses have garnered much attention, but it’s his attacks on jurors that are “worse than anything else,” former prosecutor Jeffrey Toobin said on a CNN panel Thursday. “I think judges are especially concerned about jurors much more even than witnesses, especially public figures like already seen,” Toobin said. He added that jurors can pull out of the trial, which could worry Judge Juan Merchan because “this is not a jury that has been sequestered, right?”  While the former president has mostly gone after potential witnesses, such as former attorney Michael Cohen, he has also gone after jurors, suggesting they are “95% Democrats” and too liberal to judge his case fairly. One juror already pulled out after saying she feared the public attention, while Trump was earlier admonished for muttering in court during jury selection. “I think Merchan was somewhat sympathetic to the Michael Cohen issue because Michael Cohen has been beating the hell out of Trump and there is a sense of fairness about the response,” Toobin said. “But that line about the …

Jurors Hear Closing Arguments in Landmark Case Alleging Abuse at New Hampshire Youth Center

Jurors Hear Closing Arguments in Landmark Case Alleging Abuse at New Hampshire Youth Center

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BRENTWOOD, N.H. (AP) — Jurors heard closing arguments Thursday in a landmark case seeking to hold the state of New Hampshire accountable for abuse at its youth detention center. The plaintiff, David Meehan, went to police in 2017 and sued the state three years later alleging he was brutally beaten, raped and held in solitary confinement at the Youth Development Center in the 1990s. Since then, 11 former state workers have been arrested and more than 1,100 other former residents have filed lawsuits alleging physical, sexual and emotional abuse spanning six decades. Meehan’s lawyer David Vicinanzo told jurors that an award upwards of $200 million would be reasonable — $1 million for each alleged sexual assault. He argued that the state’s clear negligence encouraged a culture of abuse marked by pervasive brutality, corruption and a code of silence. “They still don’t get it,” Vicinanzo said. “They don’t understand the power they had, they don’t understand how they abused their power and they don’t care. But the state’s lawyer said Meehan’s case relied on “conjecture and …

Scotland’s ‘not proven’ verdict does affect jurors decisions – but removing it may not improve rape conviction rates

Scotland’s ‘not proven’ verdict does affect jurors decisions – but removing it may not improve rape conviction rates

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Anyone who has served on a jury or watched a courtroom drama knows that most trials end with a verdict: guilty or not guilty. But in Scotland, there is a third option: not proven. This acquittal verdict has the same legal implications as a not guilty verdict: the accused is able to walk away from the courtroom, innocent in the eyes of the law. However, as our research shows, it also significantly reduces the conviction rate in some trial types. Now, the Scottish parliament has introduced the Victims, Witnesses and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill. The bill, which has passed its first Holyrood vote, would remove the verdict option as part of a series of reforms of Scotland’s legal system. Major political parties in Scotland have, for years, expressed support for either abolishing or reviewing the verdict, reflecting a growing consensus that it may be time for a change. Those who oppose the not proven verdict and want to abolish it suggest that its existence may be contributing to Scotland’s dismal conviction rates in rape trials. …

Trump discussed hush payment to Playboy model Karen McDougal with David Pecker, jurors hear

Trump discussed hush payment to Playboy model Karen McDougal with David Pecker, jurors hear

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David Pecker, former publisher of the National Enquirer, testified Tuesday that he paid Karen McDougal — a former Playboy model who alleges she had an affair with Trump — for the rights to her story and spoke with former President Donald Trump about the risks of it coming out. Speaking at Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan, Pecker testified he learned of the McDougal allegation in 2016 and that the then told Trump fixer Michael Cohen about it. Later, Pecker said, he received a phone call from Trump himself, asking what Pecker thought he should do. At that point, Pecker said he informed Trump that McDougal had an offer to perform on ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars” and that he thought the Republican candidate should pay her off. Trump was hesitant at first, said Pecker, who recalled the former president saying: “Anytime you do something like this, it always comes out.” It was only when Pecker kept insisting that Trump decided to clue in his personal fixer, Michael Cohen, promising Pecker that he’d call again in …

Judge throws out case against UK climate activist who held sign on jurors’ rights | UK criminal justice

Judge throws out case against UK climate activist who held sign on jurors’ rights | UK criminal justice

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A high court judge has thrown out an attempt by the government’s most senior law officer to prosecute a woman for holding a placard on jury rights outside a climate trial. Mr Justice Saini said there was no basis for a prosecution of Trudi Warner, 69, for criminal contempt for holding a placard outside the trial of climate activists that informed jurors of their right to acquit a defendant based on their conscience. The judge accused government lawyers of “mischaracterising” the evidence when they said Warner had acted in an intimidating and abusive manner, confronting potential jurors outside the court and following them, in a deliberate attempt to interfere with the administration of justice. Warner, a retired social worker, was being pursued for contempt of court after a lone protest last year outside inner London crown court in which she held up a placard highlighting the right of jurors to acquit defendants on their conscience. She protested at the start of a trial of Insulate Britain protesters for a peaceful roadblock. But the attorney general …