Juror in Long Island Killing Says He Was Pressured Into a Guilty Verdict

NY Times ^ | December 25, 2007 | COREY KILGANNON and NATE SCHWEBER

[neverdem]

At 8 p.m. on Saturday, a jury deciding the racially charged manslaughter case of a black man who shot a white teenager last year was still “hopelessly deadlocked,” to use the term the jurors used earlier in a note to the judge.

It was the 11th hour of the fourth day of jury deliberations, and a pack of news crews was waiting, as were lawyers, anxious relatives of the defendant and the victim and a racially divided gallery that had sat on separate sides of a courtroom in the Suffolk County courthouse for a month.

A mistrial seemed imminent. But Judge Barbara Kahn, who had given the jury the case on Wednesday, kept them deliberating late Friday night.

Then, when they could not reach a unanimous verdict, she called them in on Saturday, asking them to give their home phone numbers to court officials and indicating that they would have to come in again Sunday if they did not reach a decision, and then on Monday, Christmas Eve.

In fact, most of the jury — 10 members — had already concluded by then that the man, John H. White, 54, was guilty of second-degree manslaughter in the shooting of Daniel Cicciaro Jr., 17.

Daniel was shot point-blank in the face on August 9, 2006, after he and several friends arrived at Mr. White’s house and began using racial epithets in challenging Mr. White’s son, Aaron, then 19, to fight.

But there were two holdouts on the jury. And to one of them, François Larché, 46, of West Islip, Mr. White’s account of the night’s events — that the shooting was an accident and that he was protecting his family and home against a “lynch mob” of angry teenagers — resonated.

In an interview at his home, Mr. Larché said he...

[dayglored]

Pressured to give an answer he didn't believe, so that the other jurors could go home a few days earlier? And for that a man will do up to 15 years in prison?

I don't know if the guy was guilty or innocent. But this was a miscarriage of justice, if this juror's story is correct.

[GovernmentShrinker]

Mr. Larché said that the jurors were drained and testy from the four weeks of the trial and the deliberations. “You don’t sleep at night, your appetite is off, your mouth is dry from all the hostility,” he said. He added that anger pervaded the jury, citing the slamming of bathroom doors by some jurors. One juror said she was a single mother who needed to get back home to her children, he said, and another woman said her son was a soldier who was to be sent to Iraq. . . . Some jurors, he said, complained that they were being kept from their jobs and suffering financially. While declining to specify his occupation, Mr. Larché said that his employer was paying him in full throughout the trial.

It's way past time to move to a system of professional jurors. This sort of thing is one big problem with the system of drafting unwilling citizens into temporary jury duty at times in their lives which may be massively inconvenient to them. The other, perhaps bigger, problem is that in too many places, especially big cities, juries end up being composed largely of dim-witted functionally illiterate people. Witness Philadelphia, where insane medical malpractice verdicts are driving malpractice insurance rates throughout the roof for the whole, and almost entirely because of juries composed of the welfare and civil service classes who view medical malpractice awards as equivalent to winning the lottery, and they always want the poor lazy bum plaintiffs (who they identify with strongly) to win, regardless of the facts (which are often way over their heads, even if they cared about facts).

[AlaskaErik]

In most states this would never have gone to trial. But in hoplophobic Democratic New York anti-gun trumps pro-black.

[skimask]

"especially big cities, juries end up being composed largely of dim-witted functionally illiterate people."

Boy oh boy is that the truth. They don't want you on a jury if you have half a brain. Lawyers want people on juries who will base a verdict wholly on emotions.

[Lancey Howard]

The “justice” system depends on finding jurors who can’t spell “DNA” if you spot them the ‘D’ and the ‘N’. It may be the best system in the world blah blah blah, but anybody who depends on it for justice is a fool.

[babygene]

I was jury Foreman on a jury where a man was on trial for attempted murder of a police officer. In this case, what had happened was that there was a car chase and the police shined their spotlight in the defendant’s window while traveling 65mph on the freeway. The car swerved toward the police car, and that was the basis for their charge...

We ended up voting not guilty, but most started out ready to convict. MANY just wanted to convict so as not to have to spend the weekend there.

A bunch of Idiots. Anyone with a half a brain and a job had already skirted jury duty. I was being paid by my employer.

[Doogle]

..the “system” has been dumbed down for so many years that
one can understand why people avoid serving. Doing your civic duty has become a farce. A small business owner, or a sales person can easily lose his or her job if called for grand jury duty. Who hasn’t been called and openly hoped that it’s not your named called to sit on a jury where the time and lost wages could extend to over a year. I can only imagine what it must be like to be sequestered.....to say that after a few months, the present “me first” attitude would not have an effect on a decision
Now throw in a circus type atmosphere,tv camera’s, wave to the camera, “hi Mom”.......and a Judge and defense that sees a book deal in the future....remember Judge Ito?.. and the request to him to have monitor of his computer adjusted so the millions of TV viewers could see the Sony logo seen?
What could anyone honestly expect?. Justice?

[cherry]

as I understand it, this kid was shot point blank .....the only differance in this and other stories is that it once again involved a black killing a white so we're not supposed to prosecute?....

IIRC, the single white elderly juror on the Simpson jury felt intimidated, but there again, she was white and who cares right?

[bruinbirdman]

"anybody who depends on it for justice is a fool. "

The guy demanded a jury trial. He could have demanded to be tried by a judge.

What was reported by a couple of disgruntled jurors who may have ulterior motives is suspect.

yitbos

[hocndoc]

The “pressured” juror is a whiner who didn’t stand for what he says are his principles and wants to blame everyone else. He got tired? He felt “attacked”? Life is hard, sometimes.

10 jurors convinced him they were right - which I believe is not a bad thing and a legitimate part of the jury process - or he abdicated his duty to all of us who are his fellow citizens — and then applied his own pressure to the 12th juror. If the latter, it’s no one’s fault but his own and he should quit giving press interviews.

The duty of citizens to serve as juries of their peers, and the right of the rest of us to have people stand for us and/or against those who harm us is something we all count on. How long could we follow laws that we believe are arbitrarily administered?

[hocndoc]

I strongly disagree. I’ve served on one petit jury and one Federal District Grand Jury. Together, I believe we made good jurists.

As much ignorance and emotion as I see in my fellow citizens, I trust them on a jury more than I would “professionals.” The judge is supposed to be the trained and impartial witness and arbitor to the legal proceedings, the jurors have a different role. Give me 10 out 12 of my peers over paid and legally trained professional jurors with a good judge on the bench.

The problem here is the press attention on one man out of 12 who now says he didn’t stand up for what he believes. Reminds me of a TV drama: “Were you telling the truth then or now? Were you *lying* then or now or both?”)

[Does so]

"...The “justice” system depends on finding jurors who can’t spell “DNA” if you spot them the ‘D’ and the ‘N’. It may be the best system in the world blah blah blah, but anybody who depends on it for justice is a fool..."

As a retired Sheriff's Deputy in Florida, I am not permitted to serve on a jury.

Since I receive occasional "notices to serve" anyway, I always reply, "I don't want to appear because I'll have to listen to lying Defense lawyers".

So far, so good. :-)

[krb]

Ito had a Thinkpad :-)

[Bernard]

It's way past time to move to a system of professional jurors

What a horrible idea. We already suffer from a large number of professional; "public servants" who get on the payroll and never leave, either through election or civil service.

As far as juries in certain areas being made up of "dim-witted functionally illiterate people", well, there is that thing about a jury of peers. Just like people eventually get the government they deserve, they also get the neighborhood they deserve.

[Bulldawg Fan]

Its race, not jury pressure that caused you to hear about this case. Convicting a black man raises all sorts of leftist howls and newspaper attention. Be confident that the media and racists in the NAACP will find any way they can to cast doubt on the verdict.

[jim_trent]

I have been called for jury duty several times in the last 40 years. I fill out the form they give me and put down “registerd professional engineer” on the line that asks for occupation. I have NEVER gotten called to the courthouse after that. The lawyers from BOTH sides don’t want anyone who can think for themselves on the jury.

[trebb]

I don't know if the guy was guilty or innocent. But this was a miscarriage of justice, if this juror's story is correct.

I was on a jury where it was obvious (7 eyewitnesses and the perp admitted in court that he had done it) that the perp had clubbed a man almost to death with a 2x4, which left the man messed up for life after 4 brain surgeries. The charge was assault with a deadly weapon, which any fool could see was both legitimate and, by law (we took our oaths as jurors) necessary as a verdict. Some of the jurors agonized over the guilty verdict and wanted to say "not guilty" because they were afraid there might possibly be a mistake and thewy didn't want to punish him. I argued hard and long with them and took them through the whole thing point-by-point for 2 days and they reluctantly agreed to the guilty verdict (they couldn't find one rational argument that he didn't deserve it). After we delivered the verdict, the prosecutor came up with a big grin. It turns out that the same perp had done a similar thing up in Wisconsin and was down in our area on the lam. Due to the law, they couldn't tell us that until after the trial was over. Then the holdouts were all grins too because they had "done a good thing". But, I would expect that if they hadn't gotten the other information, they would be crying today that they were "forced" to convict the poor guy. We are a society of idiots that are being successfully programmed to defend those that would prey on us to the demise of the decent citizens.

[laotzu]

I would not wish to be judged by a jury of morons.

For myself; I would appreciate all Freepers fully availing themselves of jury duty.

I promise to do the same.