Free Republic

DALLAS — The federal government's strategy for prosecuting alleged terrorist fund-raising in America is faltering after jurors failed to agree on most charges against five officials of what was once America's largest Muslim charity, the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development. After 19 days of jury deliberations, Judge Allen Joe Fish declared a mistrial yesterday on the bulk of the charges. His action followed a morning of confusing proceedings in which the jury returned written verdicts of not guilty on some counts, but three jurors told the judge that they disagreed with at least part of what was recorded...

The Holy Land Foundation terrorism-financing trial ended in a mistrial Monday after the jurors deadlocked on most of the counts. One of five defendants was acquitted of all but one charge against him. Mohammad El-Mezain, the Holy Land's original chairman and endowments director — was acquitted on most of the counts by a unanimous jury. The mistrial will not affect his acquittals, but he could still face prosecution on a charge of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorism. A government prosecutor said the Justice Department will retry the case on the charges where the jury reached no verdict. Earlier...

DALLAS — A mistrial has been declared for five of six defendants in the case of a Muslim charity charged with financing Middle Eastern terrorists. The read verdict said the jurors found three leaders of a group that was once America's largest Muslim charity not guilty of funneling illegal aid to terrorists, but the panel was sent back to deliberate on the other defendants after three jurors said the verdicts read in court were wrong. Because of the confusion, the judge did not officially accept those verdicts, which aquitted charity fundraiser Mufid Abdulqader on all counts and two others on...

"If it can happen to them, it can happen to any one of us. It has definitely had an adverse affect on agents involved in border security." -Mark Parsons, President, Fraternal Order of Police in El Paso, Texas, Customs and Border Protection agent By now, everyone in North America, and especially certain Mexicans are familiar with the case of two former Border Patrol agents convicted of causing serious bodily injury, assault with a deadly weapon, discharge of a firearm and violating the civil rights of a drug smuggler and illegal alien at the U.S. - Mexican border. Absent of a...

Officials Say Woman Talked About Case With Family DOVER, N.H. -- A man convicted of molesting a 7-year-old Dover girl is free, based on a juror's misconduct at his trial. Wesley Taylor's original sexual assault conviction was thrown out after a juror talked about the case with her son, a lawyer, and brought their conversation up during deliberations. This week, prosecutors agreed to allow Taylor, 34, to plead guilty and be sentenced to the time he already served, a little more than a year. He had been sentenced to up to 20 years. Deputy Strafford County Attorney Peter Odom said...