I have often drawn comparisons between the trial in Montgomery and last year’s HealthSouth trial, in Birmingham. Except for the presence of Richard Scrushy, the two trials may not have had a lot in common, but as I have pointed out, there were a number of similarities. We had another one today. Both juries were given an Allen charge when they were unable to reach a unanimous decision. Although an Allen charge generally raises the possibility of a hung jury, it is impossible to ascertain exactly what it means to the defense and the prosecution. Looking backwards, at Birmingham, we now know the Allen charge was given when the jury was deadlocked 10-2 for acquittal. One of the two holdouts later said that he was not planning on changing his position, and may have hung the jury, but he was sick and had to be removed from the panel. The replacement quickly sided with the acquittal camp and it was 11-1. A couple of days later, it was over.
Continue Reading–11 words [...]
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They’re hung. By way of a note, any hope the jury has made progress in the last three days was dashed. The note said “We regret to inform the court that after many days of deliberating, we were unable to reach a verdict of either guilty or not guilty on any/all of the counts.” With the possibility the jury is deadlocked, there has been some discussion about what the next move might be, and is there anyway of resolving the issue short of declaring it a mis-trial, and doing the whole thing again. Of course the do-over option is not popular with anyone connected to the case, but it may be unavoidable. One thing that has been whispered about during the later part of last week, and will probably get full voice if the deliberations go a day or two into this week, is the judge given an “Allen Charge.” Because of its potentially explosive nature, the Allen Charge is sometimes referred to as the dynamite charge. |
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