re: Will Smith Murder Trial-Guilty of manslaughter and attempted manslaughter

quote:

---

“No one there had an intent of agreeing with the second-degree murder (charge). No one. I know that may come as a surprise,” she said. “Really, what we were struggling with was not guilty — which didn’t bode well either, because (Hayes) had some responsibility for his actions.”

---

quote:

---

But the juror said Smith’s friends seemed to gloss over another forensic finding in their testimony: Smith's high state of inebriation. The Coroner’s Office said his blood alcohol content was .235, nearly three times the legal limit for driving.

“I’m sorry, you don’t go just a hair shy of three times over the legal limit and your friends don’t know,” she said. “Everybody kind of loses credibility when they’re not being truthful.”

---

quote:

---

The juror said she respected the testimony of Smith’s wife, but that “I felt like maybe a lot of her memory was more of the man that she loved, rather than the man that was there that night.”

---

quote:

---

The juror said she was surprised that Hayes decided to testify in his own defense, but she thought it helped his case.

“It gave him some humanity that we were unable to see until that point,” she said.

---

quote:

---

The juror nevertheless found one of Hayes’ most crucial claims to be incredible. The 29-year-old tow-truck driver said that he believed Smith had picked up a gun and that he heard a "pop" sound when he opened fire in response.

“I know what he was trying to say about Will’s shooting, or that he thought he saw a gun,” she said. “He was on trial for his life, so you can understand how maybe in this amount of time that he has convinced himself of that, possibly. But none of us believed that.”

---

quote:

---

The juror said the group quickly dispensed with one charge. Prosecutors had accused Hayes of aggravated criminal damage to property for ramming his Hummer H2 into Smith’s Mercedes SUV on the night of April 9. But the juror said there simply was not enough evidence to show that the act was intentional.

---

quote:

---

“Two were pretty adamant about acquittal. Five were on the fence, trying to work through the emotion of that and what it meant, and then the other five were (that) he was not going to walk away without consequences. That’s really how it stacked up,” she said.

---

Im thinking about making a new thread for the juror. Seems like something people would be interested in

Will was the aggressor. The issue is nibody testified that will said gun or got a gun. Hayes would be a free man if someone did.

Have the terms of the sentence been revealed? Or will there be a sentenceing portion of the trial?

quote:

---

Im thinking about making a new thread for the juror. Seems like something people would be interested in

---

Since i didn't comment in the other thread, i just read through the article.

I think the jury pool was a pretty equal reflection of what this board has narrated on both sides. I think the jurors felt compassion for Hayes. The jurors comments seem to be skeptical of Smith's parties comments which could be fair but seemed hesitant to also need to narrate that she had to be skeptical of Hayes' testimony as well. In the end, it appeared there were a couple that wanted an acquittal which likely isn't that unexpected given human nature of 12 jurors. I think it was 08 possibly who said after the Not guilty of the property damage that they had to vote that way more due to the fact that it would make Hayes the instant aggressor and juror confessed that along with a possible lack of evidence of intent which there's really nothing more scientific that can be show intent. In the end, due to the star nature of trial, i think its fair to say that the jurors had to make sure and go above and beyond that they weren't showing favoritism and probably used that to take to the defendant a bit more than possibly in a normal trial.