Judge, we're finished

May 12, 2005 12:46 PM

Judge, we're finished. As the retrial of the Gwen Araujo murder case begins, a juror in last year's mistrial explains why he thinks the retrial may also result in a hung jury. It didn't help that "the star witness turned out to be the biggest liar of all."
posted by kirkaracha (3 comments total)

The unanimously rejected a manslaughter verdict, but were deadlocked between first- and second-degree murder. According to the jury instructions:

All murder which is perpetrated by any kind of willful, deliberate and premeditated killing with express malice aforethought is murder of the first degree. The word "willful," as used in this instruction, means intentional. The word "deliberate" means formed or arrived at determined upon a result of careful thought and the weighing of considerations for and against the proposed action. The word "premeditated" means considered beforehand. CALJIC 8.20

Murder of the second degree is also the unlawful killing of a human being with malice aforethought when the perpetrator intended to unlawfully kill a human being but the evidence is insufficient to prove deliberation and premeditation. CALJIC 8.30

This article was particularly interesting to me because I was also a juror on a murder trial in California last year. We also struggled making the distinction between first- and second-degree murder (eventually deciding on second-degree), and had trouble with "deliberate" and "premeditated," which have different legal meanings than their commonly-used meanings.
posted by kirkaracha at 12:46 PM on May 12, 2005

Just a question - I'd like to know if this whole thing isn't sub judice?
posted by TimothyMason at 1:18 PM on May 12, 2005

Thanks for this post.
posted by climalene at 9:06 PM on May 12, 2005