Not Guilty.
I'm, stunned, frankly.
Maybe the tide is finally turning.
I'm not so sure he's doomed. They can indict a ham sandwich, but convicting it is another matter. The prosecution might well be "woke", but the jury? Some of them, maybe - but to stymie a conviction, it would only take one juror who isn't, or one who is fed up with all the rampant crime and chaos. (Bernhard Goetz redux?) And surely there's at least a possibility of there being a few such jurors. So I don't think it's entirely hopeless. Of course, I won't be shocked if he is convicted of at least something (even if only as a cowardly, half-assed compromise verdict arising as a result of the jury being unwilling to "do nothing"). We'll just have to wait and see.
Excellent! My previously stated hope has been vindicated. #WhitePill
According to Nate The Lawyer's video in this post, one cannot be guilty of second-degree manslaughter without also necessarily being guilty of criminally negligent homicide (which is why the jury was instructed to not find a verdict on the negligent homicide charge if they found Penny guilty of manslaughter - a "guilty" verdict for the latter would necessarily imply a "guilty" verdict for the former, thereby rendering the former charge superfluous).
If that is correct, then it means that all the jurors who voted "guilty" on the now-dismissed manslaughter charge (which resulted in the initial hung jury) must have gone back on that decision in order to find Penny "not guilty" of criminally negligent homicide. Interesting. Was this a genuine change of mind/heart, or just standard-issue illogic and contradiction?
Yeah, I noticed that contradiction right away. Has an answer been provided?
I can only speculate...
Perhaps the juror(s) that thought he was guilty on the greater charge were angry that it was dropped by the prosecution and were simply being vindictive? Or maybe they were indicating that the greater charge was the correct one, thus they would not accept the lesser charge? Or why not both?![]()
We'll probably never know. unless the jurors "go public" about their deliberations.
I wonder if maybe they were pissed off because (after their initial "hung jury" declaration) they were forced to continue deliberations on the manslaughter charge not once, but twice. Then the prosecutor just up and dismissed that charge altogether (and "with prejudice", as required by law) - rendering the whole thing pointless. All the time and contention the jury spent on that charge was effectively completely wasted - and now, to top it all off, they were being told they would have to decide the negligent homicide charge, after all. So maybe the few jurors [1] who held out for "guilty" verdict on the manslaughter charge just decided "to hell with it - if the prosecutor can't be bothered, why should we?"
[1] And I do think it had be just a few jurors - just one, maybe two or three - who voted "guilty" on the hung manslaughter verdict. If it had been any more that - especially on the high end of the range (9, 10, or 11) - it would have been considerably more unlikely that they would all change their minds, and we would have ended up with a hung jury on the negligent homicide charge, as well. So I think this strange outcome indirectly indicates a strong pro-acquittal sentiment on the jury, with just a few "guilty" holdouts who (for whatever reasons) changed their position for the negligent homicide charge.
Expect riots to break out all over the country now after this verdict.