Posted on 04/25/2017 3:57:29 AM PDT by Nextrush
A federal judge declared a mistrial Monday in the first Bunkerville standoff case, which targeted six men accused of conspiring with rancher Cliven Bundy.....
The mistrial--an anticlimactic end to a highly anticipated trial--was declared hours after the jury convicted two men of some of the ten counts in the superseding indictment.
In returning the guilty verdicts, which still stand jurors informed the court they were "hopelessly deadlocked" on the remaining counts and defendants. U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro sent them back to the deliberation room in a last-ditch effort to encourage them to reach a more complete verdict.
"The court does accept the verdicts you have reached," Judge Navarro said, before sending them back to deliberate.
But in the end, the jury was at an impasse--unable to unanimously choose a side in the deeply divided case....
Though prosecutors won convictions against two of the defendants in the first trial, they were dealt a blow when the jury failed to return a verdict for any of the defendants on the two conspiracy charges, which represented the core issue of the trial.
"I think it should show the federal government that have a much weaker case than they thought going into this, because we've now had two months of testimony from over 50 prosecution witnesses. and they couldn't get 12 people to agree," said attorney Todd Leventhal, who addressed members of the media outside court.
Jurors failed to reach a verdict on any of the charges against Leventhal's client, O. Scott Drexler.
Acting U.S. Attorney Steven Myhre, who took over as the top federal prosecutor in Nevada halfway through the trial, declined to comment.....
(Excerpt) Read more at reviewjournal.com ...
Greg Burleson, a former FBI informant, was convicted on eight charges. Burleson was caught up in the FBI's "Longbow Productions" video sting operation making inflammatory statements after being plied with alcohol before his interview. The mandatory minimum sentence for Burleson is 57 years.
Defendant Todd Engel was convicted on two charges. He could face up to 20 years in prison
A hung jury unable to reach verdicts for the other four defendants.
In a video posted after the verdicts yesterday, activist Kelli Stewart said "justice was not served" by the process which included Judge Navarro's childish handling of the trial, denial of prosecution witnesses etc. etc.
"Kangaroo Court" Judge Gloria Navarro declared a mistrial for the other four and set June 26th as the date for their retrial.
That would push back the trial for Cliven Bundy and three other defendants from the planned June 26th date. No word yet from prosecutors on whether they intend to retry the defendants.
When will Washington shut down this prosecution?
As I have repeatedly pointed out - I expect no help from Trump on issues regarding Western lands. He simply doesn't get it and never will. His law and order streak will prevail. These guys dared to resist the Feds who BTW turned this into a heavily armed camp first.
Look at Trump’s kids. They are all fighters. They get that way by their Father letting them learn to fight their own battles and not rushing in to save them every-time trouble starts. He can always pardon them. But Americans need to get off their lazy asses and start fighting back like in Berkly and here with Jury Nullification.
Sessions was on Hannity’s radio program yesterday and Sean was asking him about the possibility of going after the leakers or even Hillary, and he said he wouldn’t comment if there was an investigation or not and that he doesn’t bring forth cases so it’s not likely Trump has any influence if they “go after” anyone, and his often cited Rally cry of “lock her up” is now going to fall silent. Maybe I am reading more into this next statement where Sessions stated they will follow procedure and let cases start from law enforcement and FBI and work their way up. How can you drain the swamp knowing the FBI will never bring forth cases against itself. To me it sounds like nothings changed and I have my doubts Sessions will be any better than Holder or Lynch other than he doesn’t have an evil agenda. I was hoping to even out thew last 8 years he would have a vigilante style justice of at least going after the corruption that exists within Washington. Looks like that ship has sailed.
I think jury nullification is a long stretch in this case. A hung jury just means some didn’t buy the prosecutions case for some defendants. The jury would need to be interviewed to discover if their intentions were to nullify the law.
+1.
I suspect jury nullification is more likely next time, because the public has become more educated during this trial.
Obviously enough of that stacked-in-favor-of-tyranny jury was smart enough to nullify the rail-road show trial to cause a hung jury. There was no conviction and most of the constitutional-defense/Government-bad-conduct/self-defense evidence was not permitted to be shown to the Jury.
Sessions has to be tight lipped in that sort of interview. He does not want it said that he pre-judged a case.
You’re right, but I think jury nullification keeps being brought up because Bundy supporters know the law was broken.
It accomplished the same thing, albeit without a dynamic commentary.
One thing I thought Trump understood was that to get the “things he and we wanted he had to “take care of” the folks who stand in the way. So far, he has failed miserably at this. I have posted for almost two years now that, were he to win, Trump would have to do these things if he wanted to succeed at his stated goals. I warned that for him to do so we would have to brace ourselves for the cries of the left that he was behaving tyrannically toward them.
At this juncture, it would seem that Trump has decided to “color inside the lines” which is admirable in kindergarten. This ain’t kindergarten and our enemies will plumb any moral depths to win. If Trump can’t figure out a way to turn this around he is a one term president and all of our efforts will have been in vain. Another Bush, but even worse.
If he wants to “right his ship”, IMHO, he needs to start taking scalps from INTERNAL enemies. Enemies domestic. Sure it is easy and tempting to give an order and launch 59 cruise missles aimed at Assad. We will know he is serious when he does something aimed at the Clanton gang or Maxine Waters.
Didn’t see this but you missed by a country mile on the Hon. Jeff Sessions.
He has no intentions of allowing leakers of classified information skate. None. Zero, nada, nunca.
AG Sessions follows the code not to discuss any aspect of an active case, inclusive of one(s) connected to national security.
Please make a note of it.
I was wondering if there was a case against the gov for murder?
I would like to see Trump for starters release those ranchers in Oregon that caused the protest at the wildlife refuge involving Cliven Bundy’s sons last year.
Steven and Dwight Hammond should not be serving five year mandatory terrorism sentences for lighting a backfire to protect their land from a brushfire.
Free the Hammonds, Mr. President.
I don't believe he was reaching for a gun (the murderer's defense), but even if he had ... he had come out into the open with arms outstretched because he had been forced off a public road by an illegal roadblock.
Lavoy was murdered, plain and simple, by the government.
I have heard nothing yet regarding the family lawsuit notion in this case most likely because the Justice Department Inspector General has not completed an investigation said to have been launched a year ago in the FBI agents actions at the “felony traffic stop”.
Two shots were fired by the FBI Hostage Rescue Team at LaVoy’s truck with one hitting the roof as he pulled off and got out moving away from the truck.
Then in the the dark the FBI guys went through the snow to pick up the shell casings to remove any evidence of their action but oops, the Oregon investigation into the shooting was given drone video showing them doing it.
Here’s a video of LaVoy’s widow speaking at a meeting in Texas last Saturday.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ed7QO5ykmq4
Thank you for posting that.
I’ve been more or less ignoring all of these Bunkerille stories, waiting to see if this headline came along. I see it has. Now it’s interesting...
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