Posted on 04/29/2010 12:07:13 PM PDT by Bigtigermike
KNOXVILLE - Federal court jurors reported today they have reached a verdict on three of four charges against former University of Tennessee student David C. Kernell, accused of illegally accessing the private e-mail account of 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
But they also reported they are deadlocked on the first count, a charge of identity theft.
Without asking what their verdict is on the other counts, U.S. District Judge Thomas W. Phillips sent them back to the jury room to continue deliberating the first count.
In their written communication to the judge this afternoon, the jurors said: "Some of us feel not all jurors are following the jury instruction."
On its third morning of deliberations, the East Tennessee jury pondering charges against Kernell asked to review a federal law addressing identity theft. That's the count on which the jurors deadlocked.
After some discussion with lawyers, Phillips decided today to give them a copy of the law - with some sections blacked out that he said are irrelevant to the case.
Jurors then indicated they wished to go to lunch. The panel is expected to resume deliberations at 1 p.m. today.
(Excerpt) Read more at knoxnews.com ...
I realize that, but going by the article it does appear to me that they have reached guilty on 3 counts so far.
Agreed, and I hope so... but it’s strange times we live in.
The news will hit the wire services Friday night and the tv news on Saturday if at all.
What those commenting at the link keep repeating is that the guy didn’t do any real damage.... but none of them seem to mention that he INTENDED to do damage. I know his intentions don’t matter, but if he had found something damaging, his intention was to destroy Palin.
All jury instructions are based on the law. If they are not, they get overturned. The trial courts and the appeals courts have a big book of "standard jury charges" but they are all based on the law. Lawyers may (and usually do) request additional charges particularly applicable to the case, which they write themselves -- but again they have to cite the law.
Back when I was a judicial clerk, we spent a lot of time in the library making sure that the jury instructions tallied with the law. Occasionally the lawyers would try to sneak one by you, but they generally got caught - if not by us, by the other side.
Think of the instructions as a capsule summary of the applicable law, provided for the jury's convenience. The one time I sat on a jury (don't ask me why they took me!) the instructions were of GREAT help. Especially since it was an area of law I don't practice in.
With that said, where the jury holds absolute sway is on the FACTS. And applying the charged law to the facts. Plenty of wiggle room there for a jury of decent intelligence without overthrowing the law.
I could not agree more, with everything you said.
Quick verdicts usually mean guilty.
Hence my tagline!
Had this been buck-tooth "Bobby", white southerner, NRA member, Christian, with a GOP sticker on his SUV, with a state Republican father breaking into Joe Biden's email, there would be 200 satellite trucks outside the courthouse and damn near riots if they little cretin was set lose. They would bitch and moan ad nauseum ALL WEEKEND if a son of a Republican got away with this.
Again...hence my tagline.
“Federal Prosecutors Mark Krotoski and Greg Weddle contend Kernell broke into Palin’s account with the intent to find information that could damage her political campaign, though he found none.”
I think this is the best example of oppositional research out there and why the dems are scared of her. She can’t be compromised. All politicians are compromised, this guy went looking in the very area that there was an presupposition of privacy and found no dirt. That means Palin is authentic. And that is why the dems have to get her out of politics. They have no strings to pull on her.
1. Identity Theft: Your Honor, my client never used Gov. Palin's account to send emails under her name, he only read emails and published them on the internet.
2. Wire Fraud: Your Honor, my client never attempted to defraud anyone. He simply published emails. He didn't solicit for donations, or ask for return email addresses. And besides, with electronics so pervasive in today's society, isn't everyone involved in a wire transaction of one kind or another all the time?
3. Unlawful Computer Access: Your Honor, my client never accessed Gov. Palin's computer. He used his own computer to access a website on the internet. And we all know, Your Honor, that the internet is just "there" like the air, it's everywhere.
4. Obstruction of Justice: Your Honor, my client has fully complied with the FBI and local police. He never obstructed anything. This charge is scurrilous, and was an attempt to "pile on" to my client by political opportunists.
-PJ
If that little snot-nose gets 5 years of hard time he really will learn the meaning of freedom — the term ‘freedom’ won’t be so abstract sitting in a prison cell fending off criminals looking for sex!
The national media didn’t even report on the Democrat terrorists at the 2008 GOP convention, persons who were convicted of plots to kidnap delegates and to firebomb the event and blow up police cars (with stated no care if police were injured in those cars)
Watergate II and the media is silent. Stone silent.
Quick verdicts usually mean guilty.
Well, in this case their password is their identity,
any way what got me was you can see the law, just not
all of it.
What have we become?
Ask me if I care. We have a jury system. Jury instructions are not part of the Constitution. They are usually a set of rules that the Attorneys and the Judge agree upon to give to the jury, but the jury is not bound by them. They are bound only by their oath to do justice. And they are not going to be punished if they violate that oath because they are drafted into the position and they are not paid. It is a community service and until we have professional jurors with criminal penalties for not following jury instructions, juries are free to convict the innocent and free the guilty. But you need 12 like minded individuals to convict the innocent, so it ain't likely to happen unless the jury is instructed to do something stupid, like disregard the defendant's confession that he murdered 20 people before he insisted he didn't murder the person he is on trial for murdering. I think I might ignore the jury instructions on that one.
if the redacted portions related to laws that he wasnt charged w/ violating then it would be improper to consider anyway.
Wanna bet that “some” juror is a leftist loon sitting tight and ignoring the law in an effort to acquit, and if not acquit, generate a mistrial.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.