I kind of don’t care so long as he’s still a senator while Christie is still in office.
Hear, hear! Jurors might understand that O’Donnell of VA did something similar and walked.
I’ll go ahead and throw my guess into the hat too: one or two jurors are just adamant that the leftist socialist pig should go to political prison even though everyone else has decided there’s insufficient evidence and the prosecution didn’t carry its burden.
Perhaps it’s my being overly sensitive, but this particular judge seems like he’s gotten himself aroused at the prospect of a conviction.
Or are simply looking at what Trump has gotten away with and are looking at it from an “arbitrary and capricious” point of view.
I was not following the trial but it is possible that prosecution did carry the burden as the burden was defined prior to O’Donnell. I personally wish that anti-corruption statutes were significantly strengthened and I have no problem with Menendez is judged by stricter standards (as long as stricter standards are applied to everyone in the future).
However, just like @prometheus59650 I am relieved that the chance of Menendez remaining in the Senate until after Christie leaves the office has just increased.
I’ve been on a two juries in trials that had a big mens rea component to the crime. Two (or three) is more likely than one. Interpersonal dynamics were such that one person couldn’t hold out. Two can, however. They support each other.
But I think your count is correct – a supermajority are at nothingburger and a very few law’n’authoritarians want a conviction.
Not sure that I agree with you. Judges should not rush jurors. And it takes a while for an alternate who has been seated to catch up. Having worked in a court room for 22 years, I do not remember a single judge who ever showed any indication of what his,or her feelings were about the trial. One compared himself to a referee.
Based on what the former juror said, that may very well be what’s happening.
I’d like to know the political orientation of the judge. Maybe he is a republican who would consider a hung jury a defeat; even if convicted on retrial, Menendez’ Senate replacement would be a democrat, while if convicted now, there’s a republican replacement. Or maybe he is a democrat, who just hates to think he wasted all his court time on a hung jury; you know, better an innocent person go to jail than we waste the taxpayers money on a mistrial.
@sniffit and @littlegirlblue - After O’Donnel of VA it is unclear what is illegal corruption and what are official acts. Perhaps that’s the jury’s problem.
As distasteful as Menendez’s interactions with Melgin have been, it will gladden my heart if Chris Christie has a sadz, and does not get to name his replacement. The air in the country will be a bit cleaner when both he and Paul LePage leave their posts in January.
How Nordic of you. Yet they will persist, because they are terminal but still greedy.