Posted on 07/25/2008 6:45:46 AM PDT by TornadoAlley3
BRIDGEPORT — The jury in an attempted murder-rape case in Fairfield was dismissed Thursday after a hangman's noose was found drawn on a blackboard in the jury deliberation room. Superior Court Judge Lawrence Hauser said he had no choice under state law but to dismiss the six jurors and three alternates, and to order the case begin over again.
The judge pointed out the noose has come to symbolize racial or ethnic bias because of the history of lynchings.
A Halloween display in Stratford attracted widespread condemnation when a dark-skinned mannequin hanging from a noose was included in the display last year.
And Bridgeport police are still investigating an incident last fall in which a noose was found under a black police officer's patrol car.
Earlier this year, the state General Assembly passed a law that classifies a noose as a hate crime.
In Thursday's court case, the jury was dismissed just before trial was to start for a man accused of nearly strangling and raping a Fairfield woman in 2003.
Anas Hourani, 24 — a man with a Syrian passport residing on Black Rock Turnpike in Fairfield — is charged with attempted murder, first-degree sexual assault, aggravated first-degree sexual assault, first-degree assault and first-degree burglary. If convicted, he could be sentenced to more than 100 years in prison by Hauser.
According to police, Hourani on the night of Jan. 3, 2003, broke into the woman's apartment on Overlook Avenue in Fairfield.
He put a plastic tie around the neck of the sleeping woman and choked her until she passed out, police said. Hourani then allegedly raped her. The woman was unable to identify her attacker or even recall what happened because of oxygen deprivation. Even hypnosis failed to restore her memory.
The case went unsolved until April 2007 when a new kind of DNA connected Hourani to the crime.
Hauser said the noose apparently had been on the blackboard since last Thursday when jury selection was completed for the trial.
The room had not been used since then, and officials said there is no indication who may have drawn the noose.
"We have no way of knowing how it got there," the judge said.
"I think the judge did the right thing," Hourani's lawyer, Richard Silverstein, said later. Senior Assistant State's Attorney Cornelius Kelly declined comment.
Selection of a new jury got under way Thursday afternoon. Judicial marshals were instructed to erase the noose drawing prior to the new jurors being brought into the Main Street courtroom.
Note to self: add to list of jury avoidance techniques.
It is rather amazing that a drawing of a noose always generates a dramatic response. What next? Forbidding anagrams of the word noose? The dreaded “Enoos”?
In this instance it appears that the noose was a signal to convict.
Wow! A mannequin with actual skin on it? Maybe the mannequin was dark in color, but I don't believe it actually had skin on it.
Hung jury?
Yea that is what I was thinking!
Calling Dr.Lector.............calling Dr. Lector
The pursuit of equal rights in this country has resulted in unequal rights and extra rights for protected classes. All a minority has to do is claim racism and everybody scurries like squirrels. Meanwhile, whites can be preyed upon with less fear because of the knowledge that aquittal is more certain. It's OJ all over again. America still hasn't moved past this.
Meanwhile, the Marxists feed on the dead husk of white America and Western Civilization. Obama lead us to the Promised Land!
Sub-human DNA. Maybe even sub-chimpanzee DNA. There is a lot of that washing around the Middle East.
“The case went unsolved until April 2007 when a new kind of DNA connected Hourani to the crime.”
A new kind of DNA was discovered??? Paging Drs Watson and Crick.
There wasn’t even a noose in the courtroom, merely a chalk rendering - perhaps it was meant to be a knot from a weekend sailing class.
Exactly. A good way to get out of jury duty.
LOL! Hung jury. Good one.
Since when are there six jurors in a criminal trial ???
Under the Connecticut Constitution criminal cases tried before a jury must have at least six members except for capital offense which must have a 12 person jury (Conn. Constitution. Art. One, Section 19). By statute, juries in all non-capital cases are six person (CGS § 54-82b) Because of the Burch decision, Connecticut could not permit nonunanimous jury verdicts for criminal cases when the term of incarceration could exceed six months.
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