Jury hung in Freddie Gray trial…
…and the judge is reported to have said something so extraordinary I believe it could be grounds for a reversal if defendant Porter is ultimately found guilty:
In a shocking statement, trial Judge William Barry told the hung jury to “Compromise if you can do so without violence to your own moral judgement,” according to reporting by ABC News.
Such a statement coming from a trial judge is shocking because “compromise verdicts” in criminal cases are anathema to American concepts of jurisprudence and due process.
Each juror is sworn to vote for a guilty verdict on a charge only if they honestly believe that each and every element of that charge has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
If they do not so honestly believe this to be the case for a given charge, they are sworn to vote not guilty on that charge. Period.
This lies at the core of the legal mandate that the defendant has the presumption of innocence.
There is no proper room for compromise in such a judicial framework.
Why am I not surprised?
It really seems that very few institutions of government any longer function in the manner that our constitution and laws dictate.
That would be judge Barry Williams. ABC didn’t get his name right, but ah well, details. He is elected to his position. He may be playing to an audience larger than 12 jurors. Especially in Baltimore. It has been known to happen.
In the era of moral relativism, we may be disappointed in the good judge’s words, but we are surely not surprised.
Porter has to be found guilty of something, nothing less than blood will appease the mob.
As I get older, I have come to believe that compromise is sorely overrated. Neo’s post makes that abundantly clear; guilty or not guilty, not kind guilty. Another example:
Politician A wants to raise taxes 20%.
Politician B doesn’t want to raise taxes at all.
The compromise is a 10% tax increase.
Politician A gets half of what s/he wants, but politician B gets absolutely none of what s/he wants.
So where, exactly, is the compromise?
“He may be playing to an audience larger than 12 jurors. “[Frog]
That is a damning critique of what our system of jurisprudence has devolved into. Courts (and juries) should be ruling on the facts of the case and on the precepts of law. They should not be playing to the consensus of an audience.
should be:
“guilty or not guilty, not kinda guilty”
Has anyone here ever sat on a jury in a racially charged case? I haven’t, but my brother has. Black defendant who held up a K-Mart with a gun. My brother was a juror. You would not believe the threats he received. He did his duty and none of the threats (burn his house down, kidnap his daughter, kill him) were carried out. He was extra careful for over a year, then decided to move to reduce his exposure.
I have to believe that some of these jurors have been threatened as well. We know that a not guilty verdict is going to result in more rioting and chaos. They need to move the trials out of Baltimore.
And this judge should have known better as he tried criminal cases against cops.
In NE civil cases there is an instruction against quotient verdicts. My cousin was on a monster jury case and they did exactly that!
JJ
Read Tom Wolfe’s “Back to Blood.”
After the OJ Simpson case and reading that book, I totally believe your story.
Omg, there is other news.
Conservatives are of sound like mind on this. If a person is guilty of murder they should be convicted even if the person is a cop.
Liberals want action it seems regardless of the law.
Remember the Rodney King case where the cops were first found not guilty by a jury and then the feds found an old law from the civil war and prosecuted the cops again to obtain a guilty verdict? If you have enough laws the prohibition against double jeopardy doesn’t apply. Did you know there are about 4000 federal felonies? They will get the cops on something. Harvey Silverglate wrote a book on the subject.
http://www.amazon.com/Three-Felonies-Day-Target-Innocent/dp/1594035229
Another judge, this one in Brooklyn.
How do these people get admitted to law school? Affirmative Action?
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/carolyn-walker-diallo-muslim-judge-sworn-koran-article-1.2467218