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Question to all - Do juries that have been out for 2+ weeks EVER come back guilty? What is the breakdown of not guilty/guilty after long deliberations?

Well it took OJ's jury 20 min to find him not guilty. I don't think you can predict just because of the time it took them to deliberate.

Question to all - Do juries that have been out for 2+ weeks EVER come back guilty? What is the breakdown of not guilty/guilty after long deliberations?

Hi ZGuy, this is a good question. The answer is it depends on the case. If a jury comes back *very* fast usually everyone, in a case big or small, knows what it means: not guilty in a weak case or guilty in a strong one.

If a jury comes back in normal time, say 2-3 days in a capital case, it's really anyone's guess. The time doesn't mean anything. Most juries on most criminal cases do vote guilty: prosecutors aren't bringing cases that they don't think they can make beyond a reasonable doubt.

Now on to your question. What about a really long time? In a shoplifting or simple drug possession case, this is *not good* for the government *at all.* But in a capital case like this, it's slightly good for the government. It almost always connotes overcoming a deadlock and holdout jurors. And holdouts are more likely to hold out for longer in larger cases. Again, not only to most juries vote guilty in most cases, but they think very hard about returning not guilty in murder cases. So I think the timing here, given the nature of the case, slightly favors the prosecution.

For reasons that have nothing to do with the timing, I'm quite certain it's a guilty verdict. This case was well-tried and had a reasonable judge. It involves a little girl. I don't think the jury wants a "not guilty" on its conscience. Idle indulgences in flights of fancies -- such as the polemical pleas for innocence I've seen in this post -- fall by the wayside and intellectual discipline is reimposed in a case of this brutality with a girl of this age. I'd be very surprised by any other verdict. There might, as an outside chance, be a compromise verdict whether not all charges go through guilty. But I would be shocked, shocked by any other result. And I worked as a prosecutor for 8 long years.

Hope this is helpful