Juries

Faulty jury instructions mean new murder trial for man who said he was assisting a suicide

A state appeals court has overturned the second-degree murder conviction of a New York man because the jury was improperly instructed on the assisted suicide defense to murder. Kenneth Minor is serving a 20-years-to-life sentence for the 2009 murder of a Long Island man whom Minor said had enlisted his…

Oct 4, 2013 7:00 PM CDT

Wrong juror serves in rape case, spurring a mistrial

A Miami-Dade judge declared a mistrial on Friday after discovering that the woman who served as the foreperson was the wrong juror. Judge William Thomas had called out the jurors selected to serve in the rape trial last Wednesday, and Gricel Acosta stepped forward when he read the name “Acosta.”…

Sep 30, 2013 12:12 PM CDT

Wasted peremptory on juror who should have been excused for cause warrants new trial, court says

The Florida Supreme Court has ordered a new trial for a murder defendant because his lawyer had to use a peremptory challenge to remove a prospective juror who should have been excused for cause. The court ruled in the case of Rafael Matarranz, who was convicted of murder and burglary…

Sep 27, 2013 5:53 PM CDT

Grand jury subpoenas judge who held Dallas DA in contempt

A judge who accused the Dallas district attorney of contempt of court for refusing to testify in a hearing is now facing a grand jury subpoena. Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins was acquitted of the contempt charge in August. Now the judge who cited him for contempt, Lena Levario,…

Sep 25, 2013 1:23 PM CDT

US judge says he can’t afford to sequester jurors in gang case, cites ‘devastating mandatory cuts’

A federal judge in New York has refused to sequester jurors in the murder and racketeering trial of four alleged gang members, citing the cost of the move at a time the judiciary is facing budget cuts. U.S. District Judge Sterling Johnson Jr. said in an opinion (PDF) issued last…

Sep 23, 2013 10:45 AM CDT

Did longtime girlfriend plot to kill 79-year-old lawyer?

Julia Phillips may not have acted alone. But she was part of a plot to kill her longtime boyfriend, South Carolina attorney and York Mayor Melvin Roberts, 79, who was beaten, shot and strangled to death in his driveway in February 2010, prosecutors say. The state says Phillips, now 69…

Sep 3, 2013 8:40 PM CDT

Jury says Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan should get death penalty

An Army psychiatrist who admittedly shot dozens of people at Fort Hood in 2009, insisted on representing himself at his court-martial and presented virtually no defense or justification for his actions should get the death penalty, a 13-member military jury has ruled. Maj. Nidal Hasan’s shooting rampage at the Texas…

Aug 28, 2013 7:45 PM CDT

Victim’s dad offers stranded juror a ride home, judge declares mistrial

Judges routinely instruct jurors to avoid a wide range of activities that could prove problematic to a criminal defendant’s right to a fair trial. However, the list is not all-inclusive, and it appears that an Alabama juror inadvertently stepped outside the bounds by admittedly accepting a ride home Monday night…

Aug 27, 2013 4:10 PM CDT

New trial ordered after juror is overheard at bar using racial slur to describe defendants

Owners of three Mexican restaurants in Maine who were convicted on charges of employing undocumented workers will get a new trial after a juror was overheard in a bar using a racial slur to refer to them. The restaurant owners—Guillermo Fuentes, 37, of Westbrook and Hector Fuentes, 39, of Waterville—were…

Aug 23, 2013 5:15 PM CDT

When do I report for jury duty? NJ offers text alerts for prospective jurors

To make it easier to communicate with prospective jurors called for duty, New Jersey courts are now offering alerts via text and email. In the past, jurors were required to call in to a phone number or visit njcourts.com to find out the status of their jury duty, according to…

Aug 23, 2013 4:27 PM CDT

Twitter accounts of Jodi Arias sentencing jurors should be monitored, lawyers tell judge

Lawyers for Jodi Arias are asking a judge to order sentencing jurors to turn over Twitter account information so it can be monitored. The lawyers asked for information on Twitter accounts and handles to make sure jurors in a new sentencing hearing are not communicating or receiving information about the…

Aug 22, 2013 12:18 PM CDT

Citizens who don’t speak English have right to serve as jurors, New Mexico Supreme Court says

Judges and lawyers have a shared responsibility to make reasonable efforts to protect the right of non-English speaking citizens to serve as jurors, the New Mexico Supreme Court says. The court issued that warning in an opinion that nonetheless upheld a defendant’s murder conviction after a judge excused a Spanish-speaking…

Aug 14, 2013 1:50 PM CDT

Tests on degraded DNA can’t link ‘In Cold Blood’ killers to unsolved Florida slayings

Did the two men made infamous by Truman Capote’s true-crime novel, In Cold Blood, kill not only the four members of a Kansas farm family, for which they were executed, but four members of a Florida family, too? Law enforcement officials believe Richard Hickock and Perry Smith likely were involved.…

Aug 13, 2013 10:20 PM CDT

Sen. John McCain winds up in murder trial jury pool, is released by judge

Sen. John McCain was ready to do his civic duty. But after the Arizona Republican wound up in a pool of about 80 potential jurors in a Maricopa County murder case, the judge released him, the Associated Press reports. Judge Joseph Kreamer explained to other members of the pool on…

Aug 12, 2013 10:20 PM CDT

‘Gay panic’ criminal defense strategies should be curtailed by legislation, ABA House resolves

The ABA House of Delegates has unanimously passed a resolution urging federal, state, local and territorial governments to pass legislation curtailing the availability and effectiveness of the use of “gay panic” and “trans panic” defenses by criminal defendants. These defense strategies seek to excuse the crimes by saying that the…

Aug 12, 2013 9:40 PM CDT