re: Jessica Chambers jury says Not Guilty, but 7 say Guilty on Poll. Chaos in the courtroom

quote:

---

Eh, they probably just misunderstood the whole thing.

It isn't that hard to see the possible confusion.

You must be unanimous to find a man guilty. "Oh gee, we only have 7, that means not guilty then" was probably the thought.

We know they must be unanimous both ways but it is easy to see the foul up, because they know for certain at 7 he isn't "guilty" either. ie hung jury is essentially "not guilty" to a layman in the broad sense. At least in the moment.

---

I'd almost be willing to bet that as the foreman (or forewoman) was preparing the notices of having reached a verdict another juror was saying "we have to be unanimous either way and we aren't, we aren't done yet"

that juror now has a big case of the I-told-ya-sos