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April 29, 2005
D'oh Update
The jury in a local murder trial has reached a verdict.
After five weeks of trial, more than 100 witnesses and 395 pieces of evidence, the jury spent a little more than five hours deliberating before presenting a double guilty verdict to Benton County Circuit Judge Tom Keith.
Capital murder carries an automatic sentence of life in prison without parole. The jury added 40 years for the kidnapping.
This was the trial I'd previously posted about in which the police mishandled the computer evidence.
I was kinda surprised by the verdict, as it appeared the prosecution only had circumstantial evidence against the defendent. But then, all I knew about the trial was what was published in the local media. Not always the most reliable sources. If the jury only deliberated 5 hrs. in a capital case, obviously they thought the prosecution had presented some pretty compelling evidence.
Just goes to show that old legal axiom is still true:
One can never reliably predict what a jury will do.
Posted by Rita at April 29, 2005 08:02 AM